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LETTERS TO ADA. 



LETTERS TO ADA, 



7. 



FROM 



HER BROTHER-IN-LAW. 



" Rien n'est heau, je reviens, que par la verite': 
C'est par elle qu'on plait, et qu l on peut long temps plaire 
V esprit lasse aise'ment, si le cxur n'est sincere." 

Boileau. 

" Truth makes the beautiful — I urge again : — 
Where truth inspires not, every hope were vain 
To please ; the mind grows weary, if the heart 
Be not sincere." 4 



* 



BY THE AUTHOR OF 
"FATHER ROWLAND," " PLEASURES OF RELIGION, n &c. 



NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, 

NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET, 

AND SOLD !BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT 

THE UNITED STATES. 

1834. 



^ 5 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1834, by 
Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the 
Southern District of New-York. 



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Printed by G. F» Bv.nct. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE READER. 

Benevolent Reader. 

The following familiar letters were written 
during the last summer, and are now published 
with the hope that they may afford you some in- 
struction and entertainment. I know not what 
you may think of them — what they are, they are. 

Permit me to dedicate them to you. I know 
not to whom, with more propriety, they should be 
dedicated. If you like them, you may perhaps, 
in the course of time be presented with another 
series. For, although some topics may have been 
discussed, and I hope to your satisfaction, others 
of no less importance still remain to be treated. 

In the mean while, kind reader, peruse attentive- 
ly what is now placed before you ; and if you do 
not become convinced, the fault w T ill not be mine. I 
am sure that you are actuated by candour, sin- 
cerity, and love of truth — I must hope for the 
result. 

Yours be every blessing, courteous reader, here 
and hereafter. 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The subjects treated in the following pages 
will be found highly worthy of a diligent 
perusal by the candid and inquiring : for, there 
certainly could not be presented to the public a 
volume containing more important matter. 
Without dropping a single expression — cer- 
tainly without intending to drop a single ex- 
pression — that might reflect on the sincerity 
and convictions of others, the Author of this 
Volume stands forth in vindication of a very 
numerous and much-injured denomination of 
christians. His weapons are not abuse, or 
unfair representation, or acrimony ; they are 
a candid exposition of certain doctrines which 
are entirely misunderstood, and an appeal in 
their behalf, not to the passions, or the pre- 



X PREFACE. 

judices of the heart, but to the sacred tribunal 
of the scriptures. 

The Author's object is to ascertain, whether 
there are any solid grounds on which the tenets 
of Catholicity may repose : whether there is 
any warrant for them in the bible : whether 
they were known to the ancient christians : 
whether many of them are not admitted by 
other denominations. In a word, whether he 
has not, at least, as much right to be a catho- 
lic, as his neighbour has to be a pro test ant. 
He wishes to convince the dispassionate in- 
quirer, that a strict and practical member of 
the Roman Catholic Church may be a genuine 
friend of Republican Institutions, and must be 
true to his country and his God. His motto 
is Glory to God — peace to men ! 

The effect which he would hope to produce 
by publishing these letters, is to do away pre- 
judice — to impart information to those who are 
desirous of acquiring it, concerning our reli- 



PREFACE. XI 

gious tenets : and he conjures the American 
public to remember that, among the innumer- 
able writers in favour of our religion, were a 
Fenelon and a Kempis, whose piety all sects 
admire, and whose amiable virtues never ap- 
peared more beautifully, than when they vin- 
dicated the cause of Truth. 

Nothing, the public may feel assured, could 
have induced the Author to publish these let- 
ters — nothing could urge him to continue the 
series — but the desire of rectifying certain 
erroneous ideas which are circulating through 
society, regarding the dogmas of the Catholic 
Church. And it is to be hoped, that one fact, 
will be made certain, viz : that our religion is 
adapted not merely to the dark ages, but to all 
times : and that the most enlightened scholar 
as well as the poor domestic, may feel proud in 
belonging to her communion, 



LETTERS TO ADA 

FROM HER BROTHER-IN-LAW. 



LETTER I. 

My dear Ada, 

The beautiful season of flowers has returned, 
when all around is fragrance and balm; when 
Zephyr trims his vernal wings, and the bee goes 
forth upon his errand of sweetness and honey : and 
as my ancestral oaks again begin to put out their 
earliest verdure inviting to their fresh leaves the 
birds— where they may build their nests, I think of 
you ; young, blooming, and fair, destined to flourish 
awhile among the bright and lovely things of earth, 
and then to be translated into a region of bliss and 
glolry ineffable. Yes, Ada, there is in the land of 
the living, a stream of immortality, on whose 
banks, such flowers as you are may bloom and smile 
in everlasting verdure. Bat then, my fair friend, 
mistake not, it is only religion, heaven-born spirit, 
that can conduct you to that place of rest ; that 
Eden of immortal bliss. 

B 



14 LETTEKS TO ADA, 

Oh f there is nought, my Ada fair, 

Believe me, there is nought be!ow 7 
Half so delightful, half so dear, 

As that blest treasure which I now 
Present, amid the flowers of springy 
To thee — an heart-felt offering. 

Religion is the wreath 
Which my humble muse entwines, 

For thy beauteous brows, beneath 
The arbour's shade, where every thing combiner 

To raise the mind to Him who gives us e-very things 

Yes, religion is the most important topic that car* 
interest the attention of man; infinitely more im- 
portant than the great questions of human policy 
which awaken the energies of the statesman, and 
arouse the wisdom of a nation. For, the effects of 
religion are felt in this world ; in all the concerns 
of society : in all the vicissitudes of life ; in all the 
contingencies of fortune; and they extend besides 
into the grave, beyond the gloom of death, into 
the very depths of eternity. That which in- 
terests the immortal spirit, which will decide its 
destiny during eternity, is so far above the petty 
considerations which agitate the world, that no 
comparison can be drawn between them. 

But truth, my Ada, is an essential attribute of 
religion ; it is impossible that religion could be as- 
sociated with error, or deception : and consequently 
it is infinitely necessary, that we endeavour to dis- 



LETTERS TO ADA. 15 

cover the genuine and original truths of Christi- 
anity, amid the doubts and uncertainties which 
are every where found about us. 

Truth, from the bosom of her God 

Descends upon the earth : 
To guide the wayward to the abode 

Of glory, where she took her birth, 
Religion's sister! twins of light! 

Stars to the heart, in life's dark night i 

Where'er they smile, there heaven appears, 

Dawning upon these earthly spheres. 
Seek, Ada, seek that light divine, 

And peace and safety shall be thine. 

In retracing all past ages ? we discover the in- 
terest which this subject has, every where, excited. 
We see what talent has been displayed, what indus- 
try aroused, what zeal inflamed, in this primal of all 
concerns, Th^ tears which Jesus shed, were shed 
for this: the labours which his Apostles under- 
went, were undergone for this : the torments which 
the martyrs suffered, were suffered for this. For 
this Stephen was stoned : Ignatius torn to pieces 
in the coloseum : Lawrence broiled upon the grid- 
iron. 

Yes, Ada, when I stood on the arena of that 
coloseum, the mighty ruins of which still remain 
in the metropolis of the christian world, when there 
in fancy, I saw the venerable martyr, heard the 



16 LETTERS TO ADA. 

roarings of the beasts, the plaudits of the pagan 
multitude, I said to my heait, behold what heroism 
has been exerted in the cause of religion ! and why 
are men so reckless, at the present day, about that 
momentous affair, which cost the primitive chris- 
tians so much suffering and so much blood? 

I know that there are associations without num- 
ber, in this country, for the propagation of tracts, 
the diffusion of knowledge, and the spread of the 
bible. I am aware of all this, my Ada, and 1 do 
not venture to condemn the intentions of those who 
form these associations. Their object, perhaps, 
in substance, is commendable ; their zeal praise- 
worthy. For they tend to confirm the inquirer in 
this one fact — that they consider the subject of 
religion as of vital moment, and consequently, 
that too much pains cannot be taken to urge the 
subject upon the thoughtless, the lukewarm, the 
gay, to induce them to pause from the noise of the 
r evel, and turn aside from the pageantry of the 
festival, and give their minds to serious contem- 
plations, To these I invite you, Ada, daughter 
of sentiment, direct your susceptibilities to your 
God, and give your heart to his church. For, 
after all the liberality and charity which should 
unite man with man, form the bonds of society, 
and link together the great chain of existence, 
after all, — and deem it not a groundless assertion, 
^.da, — truth, like its author, must be one. Oh \ 



LETTERS TO ADA. 17 

start not at the proposition ; I do not mean to deal 
eternal vengeance on any individual not professing 
the tenets of the church — I leave all to God. I 
judge not their hearts, that I may not be judged ; 
but yet, St. Paul, the favourite apostle of the dis- 
senting communities, St. Paul expressly declares 
that there is " one god, one faith, one bap. 

TISM." 

If this is the case ; if amongst the numberles- 
denominations existing, there can be but one 
faith, need I repeat, dear Ada, that the investiga- 
tion into the claims of each particular church is 
one of infinite importance. One which God re. 
quires — and which reason itself dictates to be in 
dispensably necessary. 

Then as the young flowers freshly bloom, 

Sending their fragrance to the sky ; 
Turn, Ada, turn* to heaven thine eye, 

And think, — for it is time to think — 
Of those momentous truths which link 

The present, with our hopes beyond the tomb. 

Adieu- 



B2 



18 



LETTER II. 



True, my dear Ada ; if the Catholic religion were 
what the disingenuousness of her adversaries re- 
present her to be, she could not lay claim to any of the 
prerogatives which should adorn the spouse of the 
Redeemer. How often have you heard it said, that, 
even granting there can be but one religion, it is 
manifest it cannot be the Catholic; because it is 
so corrupt, so full of superstition, so clogged with 
useless and idle ceremonies : it is impossible that 
religion could be the true one, in which the saints 
are worshipped as gods and goddesses, licenses to 
commit sin are granted, indulgences are purchased^ 
and casuistry introduced in lieu of rigid morality. 

This is the language of some of the most dis- 
tinguished men, — you find it in almost every book 
p{ travels, every romance, every geography, every 
history ; — from the heavy and elaborated folio 
down to the flying tract, and simple primer. 

Are these charges true, my Ada? is there any 
foundation for them in the nature of our holy re- 
ligion ? say not there is: although your education 
has been of a character to prejudice you against 
the tenets of Catholicism; still there is in your 
bosom a sentiment of candour, a principle of justice, 
which forbid, you to pronounce judgment before 
you have heard the real statement of the case, 



LETTERS TO ADA. 19 

In these letters, I will examine the question — 
I will consider what these superstitions are, of 
which we are accused: whether or not we have 
any solid grounds on which to base the fabric of 
our convictions, — and, I am much mistaken, if I 
cannot make it appear that we have, at least, as 
much right to be respected, for our opinions, as any 
of our dissenting citizens have for their' s, — and if 
this be the case a what means the incessant opposi- 
tion which is encouraged, the warfare which is 
carried on against our creed, in a land of universal 
toleration, liberty, independence. 

Why, as before my own dear shrine 

I send my prayers to heaven : 
Tho' tapers glimmer while the sun-beams shine, 

And the cioss tells me of the Lamb divine, 
Say, Ada, why shall I not be forgiven ! 

And yet to be a catholic appears an irremissible 
crime. You will, I hope, forgive me, my fair friend, 
after you shall have had the patience to read these 
letters, and hear my apology; and it affords me 
peculiar pleasure that, retired from the dust of the 
city at this beauteous season, and breathing all the 
freshness of vale and glen, of streamlet and wood, 
I have leisure to address you on a subject which is 
very near my heart. Read them, Ada, and think 
of me. Adieu. 



20 



LETTER III. 



You remember, Ada, one moon-light night last 
summer, as we sat on the portico of j^our father's 
mansion, conversing on the subject of religion 
that a friend approached and entering into the 
conversation, remarked that the catholic rest his 
faith entirely upon tradition. Never shall I forget 
the expression of your eye that turned towards .me, 
as it w T ere to inquire by a glance whether this re- 
mark was true. No, it is not. We establish our 
religion upon the first principles of protestantism 
itself, I mean upon the interpretation of the scrip- 
tures, according to our best judgment, and on the 
authority of the unanimous exposition of the primi- 
tive commentators — Yes, the bible lies before me — 
It is upon my table, Ada, and shall ever be my 
inseparable companion. Well, how do I act: do 
not all denominations admit it to be the source of 
all truth? and is not every individual authorised, 
by their concession, and with their approbation, to 
draw from its pellucid streams and drink, that he 
may thirst not. If then, this privilege be granted 
to all other men, why, tell me, why am I to be de- 
prived of it? and if I can deduce my doctrines from 
that inspired volume, why should not my deduc- 
tions he as sacred and as convincing, as those of 
the members of any other branches of the christian 



LETTERS TO ADA. 21 

community. Do thej^ not allow the Baptist, the 
Quaker, the Methodist, to rest satisfied in the sin- 
cerity of their convictions — then why is the catholic 
condemned ? why is his church branded with 
ignominy ? why are his tenets identified with the 
pagan rites of antiquity? why do professors in 
theological seminaries, " watchmen," and ecclesi- 
astical doctors, seek to sear us with the fiery 
brand of proscription and disgrace? 

And let it not be objected, dearest Ada, that our 
bibles differ: supposing for a moment, that ours 
is not the genuine volume, (but it will not re- 
quire much research to prove that it is,) still there 
is so little discrepancy in the essential parts of 
each, that I would be willing, in almost all 
cases, to refer to the protestant translation; and 
with that in my hand, if there be any consistency 
whatever in the professions of those who send the 
bible into every hamlet, I certainly must be per- 
mitted to form my belief upon it. 

I contend, therefore, that I have as much right 
(to sajr the least) to be a catholic as any other in- 
dividual has to attach himself to the chuich of 
which he is a member. Again, then, I ask, if this 
be true, what means the hostility that has raged 
and is still raging, against the catholic religion ? 
What mean those soi distant protestant associa- 
tions, which, like Thespis of old, move about from 
corner to corner, from street to street, systematic- 
ally misrepresenting, and vituperating our church. 



22 LETTERS TO ADA. 

" Dicitur et Thespis vixisse poemata plaustris." 

You have learned Latin, Ada, and understand 
well the meaning of this line of Horace; may I 
paraphrase it? 

'Tis said that Thespis used to drive 

His cart from door to door, 
And standing on his moving stage 

To spout his verses o'er. 
Like those musicians, Ada dear, 

Who grind their songs, I ween ; 
While fools and children at them stare 

While little monkey squeals between 
Petitioning the/are/ 

What mean those religious periodicals, the 
avowed object of which is to oppose the advances 
of " popery," to disclose its "abominations" — 
and to insult the whole catholic community. 
Dear Ada, your charitable feelings, your kind and 
general sympathy for all the human race, cause 
you to revolt from the thought of reading such ef- 
fusions — and, of course, you can have no idea of 
their coarse, malignant, and vituperative spirit. — 
But there are thousands of others, ladies as well 
as men, who not only peruse them, but believe 
their assertions as facts, and condemn, as intol- 
erable and anti-christian, the doctrines of our 
church. They believe that we regard the Pope 
not merely as a spiritual, but a temporal head — 
that we cannot, as his subjects, be good American 
citizens — and that we are only waiting the propi- 



LETTERS TO ADA. 23 

tious hour to establish his throne upon the ruins oi 
republicanism — and the inquisition on the frag- 
ments of our court-houses and legislative halls. 

In vain do we repeat, that we know no authori- 
ty of a temporal character in the Roman Pontiff — 
that we acknowledge him only as our chief 
Bishop 'residing in the capital of the European 
world — and that were there a question to defend 
oar liberties, or to attach ourselves to his political 
rule, we should rise en masse against his encroach- 
ments, and shed our blood in vindication of our 
rights, and the freedom of American citizens. 

But I will appeal not merely to the bible — 
though more ought not to be required of me by 
consistent protestants, I will array authorities, my 
dear Ada, of the most indisputable weight and 
veracity — I will call up from their silent vaults 
the fathers of the church — I will question them and 
the primitive christians — I will examine the tra- 
ditions of age after age ; the common assent of 
all believers during a period of fifteen hundred 
years, and will then appeal to the vast majority of 
christians now living, and you will hear the an- 
swer, Ada: j^ou will judge for yourself, and I 
will leave you to decide whether there is not a 
host of authority on which to establish the claims 
of that religion whose cause I have undertaken 
to defend. Farewell. 



24 



LETTER IV. 



Oh ! when I speak of defending my religion, 
the hosts of illustrious apologists who have done 
so, and so powerfully, ages before we were born, 
crowd, my Ada, before my imagination. Had I 
but a single spark of the zeal which enkindled 
their souls — one solitary emotion of the exalted 
piety which breathed through their writings, I 
might hope to produce some effect. But alas !'— 

Yet, 1 will not shrink from an effort : acquaint- 
ed with so many amiable, intelligent, and natural- 
ly pious members of society, and knowing the deep 
prejudices which are fixed in their bosoms against 
every thing pertaining to my church, I cannot be 
silent. Ada, you yourself, though incapable of 
entertaining a prejudice against any one, were so 
educated, that you could not suppress, at times, 
your wonder that I should be a catholic. And 
yet I am, and I glory in the title ! a catholic ! yes, 
Ada, but not imbued with the superstitions attri- 
buted to my church by the~ ignorant and unfair. 
A catholic, adhering to my church because she pos- 
sesses the criterions of truth : because her doctrines 
are uniform — she is one : because she has pro- 
duced myriads of saints — she is holy : because 
she comes down to the present time from the age 
of the apostles — she is apostolic. 



LETTERS TO ADA* 25 

You are not of those, dear Ada, who assert that 
it is useless and unnecessary to enter into an in- 
vestigation of religious trutfi ; I have heard you 
declare, that you admit its importance ; and in 
consequence of your desire to become acquainted 
with the nature and tenets of our church, I have 
determined to address you these familiar letters. 

Still I have known hundreds who refuse to 
read, perfectly satisfied, they say, with the reli- 
gion in which they were born. And notwith- 
standing their own security on the subject, many 
condemn the unitarian, not reflecting that he acts 
upon the verj^ same principle — and deems it ut- 
terly unimportant to admit the divinity of Christ, 
because he was born under a different conviction. 
Yes, I have been amused, Ada, when, after hear- 
ing this remark, that no one ought to change his 
religion, the question has been put, "do you think 
the unitarian can be saved." 

The Jew says that he ought not to forsake the 
belief of his fathers — the pagan asserts the same. 
And yet they are both condemned by the very per- 
sons who act upon precisely the same maxim, and 
attempt, in their own regard, to defend it as invio- 
lable ! What do you think of such inconsistency? 
Ada? 

But there are in this world too few 
Like thee, my Ada — once again, 

Adieu. 



26 



LETTER V. 



There was a time, my Ada, when there exist- 
ed but one only religion, and the spectacle was 
truly beautiful, of the unanimity and accord of all 
christians in believing the same doctrines, prac- 
tising the same rites, frequenting the same sacra- 
ments, and acknowledging the same head. What- 
ever establishments were erected, whether for lite- 
rature, or the relief of suffering humanity, all were 
the offspring of her charity, solicitude and bene- 
volence. It was a glorious sight to behold an. en- 
tire nation kneeling at the same altars — its sove- 
reign bending his brow before the tabernacle and 
the tribunal : the noble, the wise, the learned, the 
rich, the beautiful, the lovely, all vying in the 
cause of that one religion. 

Then did those monuments arise, 

Where talent, wealth, and taste were lavished : 
Whose spires in hundreds pierce the skies, 

And which, though centuries repose 

Upon their hoary casemates — still disclose 
Beauties which fill the stranger with surprise, 

And skill with which the admiring sight is ravished. 

You have seen, Ada, these prodigious Gothic 
structures reared under the influence of the catho- 
lic religion, in England and Scotland. Oh ! those 
were halcyon days, indeed; when the quiet of the 



LETTERS TO ADA. 27 

fireside was not disturbed by polemic disagree- 
ments : when all thought alike, acted alike : con- 
tent in the possession of that creed which was 
transmitted from their forefathers, and happy in 
their convictions which inspired their minds with 
security, and their hearts with tranquillity. Those 
brighter than Astrean days are gone — the noise 
of controversial disputation is heard in the sanctu- 
ary of domestic life, and the recesses of the temples 
of prayer. Acrimony and prejudice have usurped 
the tabernacles often thousand hearts, where cha- 
rity and peace and love should ever abide : and 
we, who still cling to the tenets which rendered 
our ancestors so happy and so good, are hardly 
tolerated amid the violence of modern opposition. 

In lieu of that one religion that diffused her 
blessings from pole to pole, there now exists a mul- 
titude of others, all of them recent, all of them dif- 
fering — all of them appealing to the bible — all of 
them condemning us. 

Before the birth of this numerous offspring of 
sects, infidelity was unknown. Now, what desola- 
tion has not been carried into society by the schools 
of incredulity which propagate principles the most 
pernicious to the world and the' soul. Schools, 
which seek to confound spirit with matter — to ex- 
tinguish the torch of immortal hope — to annihi- 
late our being, in the cold and ignoble dust— 



28 LETTERS TO ADA. 

schools which have burst the sinews of order, and 
plunged society into blood. 

Oh, Ada ! how widely has the spirit of infideli- 
ty spread its baneful influence ! I have known 
young, buoyant, feeling hearts — tinctured with 
the gloom ! I have heard lips, from which we 
could have expected no sentiment to fall, but that 
of piety and devotion, uttering doubts, express- 
ing misgivings — not about purgatory, or the 
trinit}', or transubstantiation, but — the immortality 
of the soul. To what is the world coming, dear 
Ada, when such doubts are gaining upon the 
minds of the fair and feeling? And what bar- 
rier can he opposed to such ravages, except that 
which the authority of our church can afford. 
Take away that authority, and the consequence 
will be fatal to society. It is on account of its 
having been removed, that every other denomina- 
tion has undergone change after change ; inso- 
much that, in the language of Starke, " were Lu- 
ther to rise again, he would not know the church 
which was the work of his industry." This is 
the effect of the so much vaunted private judg- 
ment in matters of religion. What think you 
of it, Ada? So pure a heart as you possess, and 
so clear a mind as you are adorned with, cannot 
approve of a principle which has been the parent of 
so much mischief and so much doubt. Reflect on 
this, my fair friend, and farewelh 



29 



LETTER VI. 



I am sitting upon the borders of a limpid brook, 
dear Ada, under the shade of a venerable syca- 
more. And while I fix my eye upon its stream 
which the sun-beams are trying to play on through 
the deep foliage of the shrubbery and green briar 
bushes that are entangled along its course, I think 
of you — 

Yes, the sun-beam, in tremulous light, 
Glimmers soft on the stream as it flows, 

Which, shooting its way from the sight, 
Mid the shades of the shrubbery goes. 

It seems as if longing to hide 

All its splendours and charms from the eye, 
It steals to the thicket's dark side 

And passes in loneliness by. 

So virtue, when round her meek head 

The halo of glory is bright, 1 
Will fly to some desolate shade, 

And hide her from flattery's sight. 

Yes, true merit is always most modest — true 
virtue most retiring. The more we mistrust our 
own judgments, the more prudence we evince, and 
the more secure do we repose on the authority of 
the church of God. And yet the magna charta 
of protestant liberty is private judgment. What 
says archdeacon Blackburn? "When the pro- 

C2 



30 LETTERS TO ADA. 

testants first withdrew from the communion of the 
church of Rome, the principles they went upon 
were such as these: Jesus Christ hath, by his 
gospel, called all men into liberty — and restor- 
ed them the privilege of working out their salva- 
tion by their own understandings" Upon this prin- 
ciple, who could condemn the socinian or the unita- 
rian? do they not act according to their understand- 
ings ? and consequently, do they not act in con- 
formity with the fundamental maxim of the au- 
thor whose words I have last quoted. 

Dr. Marsh maintains the same position. " The 
church of England," he writes, " recognises to 
the utmost extent, the right of every man to wor- 
ship God according to his own conscience. 1 

The Dr. might, perhaps, have justly excepted 
the Catholic ; for it would appear, that that right 
is not extended to one who is made the theme of 
controversial animadversion, and the object of 
bigoted vituperation. 

The sincere protestant must feel bound, my Ada, 
to examine the foundation of his belief. He 
should put to his reason this question : Is it possi- 
ble that God could have constituted private judg- 
ment the rule of religious faith ? Who does not 
know how changeable, how capricious such judg- 
ment is % How seldom are two individuals found 
to agree, in points infinitely less intricate, and im- 
portant, than the sublime subject of divine revela- 



LETXERS TO ADA. 31 

tion : Nay, how often does not the same individu- 
al change his opinions — destroy at night the 
work of an entire day : like the daughter of Ica- 
rus, 

" Nocturno solverts texta diurna dolo." 

All day she weaves her subtle work, 

But wastes her time in vain : 
Her fickle genius, in the night 

Undoes the whole again. 

I know not how you like my paraphrase, Ada, 
but I am sure that you do not imitate the whim- 
sical attribute of Penelope. 

I am aware that it is no easy matter to induce 
men to undertake an examination into subjects of 
this kind. Their prejudices, opinions, education, 
associations, are opposed to every such inquiry. 
Besides the discovery of truth is not always 
agreeable : truth is rigid; the duties she prescribes 
not congenial to the natural inclinations of the 
heart — and there are, who, after the light of truth 
bursts upon them, regret that ihey had not been 
left in darkness. 

The Redeemer himself complained of the little 
disposition he found in men to become acquainted 
with his doctrines. They loved darkness, he said 
"because their deeds are evil." He proclaime- 
his gospel throughout all Judea, and after all his 
exertions, prayers, miracles, he succeeded in asso- 



32 LETTERS TO ADA* 

dating to himself only twelve followers, and those 
from the lowest walks of the world. 

The eloquence of Paul, who addressed the as- 
sembled wisdom of Greece, in the Areopagus of 
Athens, though he dwelt upon the vital truths of 
Christianity, and spoke of the most terrific of all 
subjects — the resurrection of the dead, and the 
last judgment, — converted but one of the members 
of that august assemblage. 

On another occasion, he could make Felix 
tremble, and turn pale on his throne, but did not 
convert him. How then can J expect to produce 
a change, though I prove the necessity of seeking 
for truth — though I succeed in convincing the un- 
biassed mind that there exists a church, which he 
who will not hear, " let him be as a heathen and 
a publican." 

This is not my language, Ada, strong as it is, 
remember that it came from the mildest and most 
amiable of all Beings — from Christ himself. If 
you discover that church, will you hesitate to lis- 
ten to her authority? no, Ada, you value too highly 
the privilege of being a christian. — Adieu. 



33 



LETTER VII. 



A christian, Ada ! what a glorious title this ! 
yes, the greatest honour which the philosopher 
can possess, is to be decorated with the name of 
that system which was founded by a crucified 
Nazarean. It is an honour which we would not 
forego for worlds — and yet are there existing 
among us, persons illiberal, unjust enough, to make 
it a matter of disputation whether or not the mem- 
bers of the catholic church can claim the dignity 
of belonging to that system! Ah me! What 
motive can men have for treating the most ancient 
and venerable church in this perfidious manner. 
I am astonished how in this country, at least, such 
prejudice — might I not rather say ignorance, 
could be found ! In this republic, where learn- 
ing has erected her shrine, where every facility of 
acquiring information, and investigating contro- 
verted points, may be had — where the spirit of 
inquiry is abroad — where effusions of all de- 
scriptions are sent forth in thousands — where peri- 
odicals scientific, literary, critical, and religious, 
■issue from every village ; and the streams of infor- 
mation flow, in redundance, over every portion of 
"he country. 

But unfortunately, Ada, these streams are not 
oure; their waters are rendered turbid by the 



34 LETTERS TO ADA. 

intermixture of those running from the fountains 
of misrepresentation and prejudice. I have said it 
before — and I cannot repeat the fact too often, the 
periodicals, especially those purporting to be of a 
religious character, are stored with false state- 
ments, fraught with groundless criminations. The 
works of fancy are a tissue of ridiculous fabrica- 
tions, detrimental to our cause ; travels are made 
up of superficial impressions, and even the muse 
in striking her harp, is made to sing of the a su_ 
perstitions of popery." 

Do I exaggerate ? charge me not with giving 
too deep a dye to the picture. No, Ada, some of 
the most learned men of protestantism have ad- 
mitted the truth of the sentiment of Dryden : 

A hideous picture of their foes they drew, 

Nor lines, nor looks, nor shades nor colours true. 

I refer you to Mr. Wix, a writer of no ignoble 
authority in the church of England: speaking 
of our religion, "it is," he says, " calumniated 
cruelly." And Dr. Parr, the rival of Dr. John- 
ston in gigantic intellect, and powerful reasoning; 
" It is insulted barbarously.'' Nightingale adds, 
" No religion is treated so unjustly." And Hume, 
who viewed the condition of things with a disin- 
terested eye, as ail religions to him were objects of 
illusion and folly, observes : " The protestants seern 
to have thought that no truth should be told of 
papists." The more, my dear Ada, you will be* 



35 LETTERS TO ADA. 

come acquainted with the real state of the ques- 
tion now before us, the more will you be convinc- 
ed of the justness of these observations. 

I have been acquainted with some very amiable 
and otherwise enlightened individuals — and have 
you not met with some, Ada, — who believed it 
sinful to read a catholic book 1 I have known 
others, who regarded a Priest, as you would a 
mufti, and felt an indescribable aversion to have 
any intercouse whatever with him, even in the 
ordinary relations of society. Nor is it to be 
"wondered at, when the catholic clergy are branded 
by their instructors with epithets the most dis- 
graceful, and accused of imposition, jugglery, 
idolatry, and every abominable practice. 

For myself, I have sometimes doubted whether 
I should be amused, or offended, in reading the 
descriptions of clerical legerdemain, and sordid 
profanity, in books from which our protestant 
jouth derive their hideous notions of Catholicism. 

I certainly deem it necessary in self-vindication, 
and from a motive of social benevolence, to do all 
that lies in my power to disabuse them of such ri- 
diculous ideas, and to represent our tenets as they 
really are; and our clergy, in their merited cha- 
racter, that of true christian ministers. 

Even the pulpit, the sacred desk itself, is fre- 
quently converted into a rostrum for polemical 
declamation, and ill-natured misrepresentation. 



36 LETTERS TO ADA. 

Yes, it is too often the case, that the youth of our 
country, whose minds should be imbued with chari. 
ty for all mankind, and a respect for the convic- 
tions of their fellow-christians, receive in the 
churches which they frequent, impressions of 
deadly opposition to the catholics. Is this in 
conformity with the spirit of true and practical 
religion ? 

Yet, am I far, very far, dear Ada, from impli- 
cating all dissenting clergymen in this charge of 
illiberality. J am acquainted with some, whose 
virtues are an ornament to the world, and whose 
feelings of sympathy and benevolence, bounded 
only by the limits of creation ; personages, whc r 
convinced that they are discharging their own 
duty, look with veneration upon the virtues, tal- 
ents, and zeal, of their catholic brethren. Yes,. 
Ada, there are in the number of dissenting clergy- 
men, some whose friendship I possess, and em- 
proud to enjoy — whose acquirements are great I- 
whose piety sincere; and whose good will and 
heart-felt respect, for our religion, are conspicuoas.. 
It was your good fortune, my fair friend, to hive- 
been placed when a child under the direction of 
a minister of the most amiable and liberal cha- 
racter ; and I was pleased to hear him remark, 
that were you to be convinced that you would be; 
more secure in the catholic religion, you ought,; 
by all means, to embrace it. Oh ! Ada, I do not 



LETTERS TO ADA. 37 

wish to render you unhappy. I would not, for 
the world, plant a thorn in that heart, where calm, 
and peace, and happiness, have hitherto abode ; I 
desire to make you still more happy — to convey 
to your mind an unsophisticated view of the te- 
nets which I profess, and to impart to your spirit 
some of the consolations, which are found so 
abundantly in the catholic church. — Adieu. 



LETTER VIII. 

It is a beautiful saying of St. Francis de Sales, 
my dear Ada, " That a good christian cannot be 
outdone in good manners." And, if ever there was 
a practical comment upon an aphorism, the life 
of that amiable prelate was an exemplification of 
the. maxim. 

It is a pity that a similar spirit does not direct the 
pens and language of many of our most distinguish- 
ed writers. We should not then have to complain 
of the abrupt sentence of condemnation which is 
passed, and sometimes, too, in very unchristian-like 
terms, against the religion of the best and wisest 
of men. 

How few are there among the multitude of mo- 
dern dissenters, who have ever reflected, that the 
doctrines and ceremonies which they denounce as 
absurd and superstitious, were believed and prac 

D 



38 LETTERS TO ADA. 

tised, by a Constantine the great; a Charle- 
magne; a Louis IX.; an Alfred; a Thomas 
& Kempis ; a Dryden ; a Pope ; a Fenelon ; a 
Massillon ; a Bossuet; a Columbus; a Charles 
Carroll ; and countless other no less illustrious per- 
sonages — That religion numbered among here hil- 
dren all the flower of the nobility, chivalry, and 
talent, and learning, and virtue, of those very 
countries where she is now most, condemned, and 
proscribed ! 

When in fashionable circles, the subject of 
Catholicism is accidentally introduced, I have 
heard it often remarked, that that religion is con- 
fined to the servants — and those, too, are not na- 
tives, or at all instructed. You yourself once 
remarked, dear Ada, that were you to judge of 
our religion from the answers made to your in- 
terrogatories, by persons of that description, you 
would be induced to believe that the church to 
which they belong was a compound of absurdities 
and superstitions. 

It amuses me to hear persons speaking of the 
want of respectability in the catholic church 
True there are not many very fashionable families 
in this city belonging to her pale, yet are there 
some as intelligent, respectable, and well educat- 
ed, as any of our dissenting friends. And I would 
ask, not you, dear Ada. for you have too much 
discernment and judgment to form your ideas on 



LETTERS TO ADA. 39 

the simplicity of domestics ; but I would ask 
some of our acquaintances, whether it is fair, justi- 
fiable, judicious, to take up violent prejudices 
against the whole community of catholics, be- 
cause their domestics happen not to be as tho- 
roughly instructed in their religion as they might 
be. 

But I repeat it, I am amused at the term respect- 
ability — when almost all the crowned-heads in 
Europe, and by far the majority of the wealthi- 
est, and most ancient families, beyond the Atlan- 
tic, and in our southern hemisphere — are catho- 
lics. Even in our own republic I might name not a 
few, who yield to none, in ample fortunes, elegant 
acquirements, and splendid virtues. 

Besides, my Ada, the men of profound erudition, 
vast investigation, boundless research, indefatiga- 
ble industry, who defend the catholic system, are 
more numerous and certainly far more conspicu- 
ous, than those who are arrayed against it. I 
have before me the writings of Dr. Milner, Dr. 
Lingard, Dr. Fletcher, and the Bishop of Aire ; and 
I smile when upon my mantel I seethe flimsy and 
badly written " Renunciation of Popery," which, 
my Ada, will be buried in the grave of the writer 
and yet how many will devour this miserable pro- 
duction, who would turn with horror, from the 
classic, and logical effusions of those master-minds. 
" Res sunt humanse flebile ludibriumy ' 



40 LETTERS TO ADA. 

is a sentiment as true, as it is difficult to translate it 
into English, yet you understand it perfectly, and 
will often have occasion to apply it in the passing 
events of life. 

•' There are among the things of earth," 

(Thus might I rhyme the poet's saying,) 
" Which rouse one's grief, another's mirth," 

The reason is beyond portraying : 
As for myself, where'er I see 

Pedantic efforts to be wise, — 
What might call forth a tear from thee 

To mark such folly in disguise, 7 
Will always, Ada, cause a smile in me. 

And it is because, perhaps, I have less sensibility, 
and more acquaintance with the world, than you 
possess. I am never more convinced of the truth 
and sanctity of the catholic church, than when I 
peruse the angry " renunciations" of men who, 
from sordid or baser motives, were induced to 
abandon her communion. Show me a man, who, 
even in defence of a bad cause, or of a precipitate 
step, writes well and politely, and he shall not be 
without the respect which talent should always 
be entitled to. I am sure, Ada, you do not differ 
with me, on this point. To-morrow I shall pur- 
sue my subject. The moon is shining brightly in 
the azure heavens, and echo seems to have gone to 
rest in the deep windings of the vale — good night, 
and-— farewell. 



41 



LETTER IX. 

u Les cloches, dans les aires, de leurs voix argentine^ 
Appelloient a grand bruit les chantres a marines." 

Thus opens, as you well know, Ada, the fourth 
canto of Boileau's " Lutrin." Embosomed in the 
quiet and sequestered shades of the country, far 
from the smallest village, I hear no sounding of 
clocks, no ringing of bells ; but my ear is saluted 
at early morn, with the wood-land matin song 
of the lark and robin. 

There is a charm, at this hour, in the country.— 
I love to ramble over the dewy fields — to pause by 
the side of the gurgling streams — to muse in the so- 
litude of nature — where the lively warblers of thefo- 
rest, strain their little throats, in the praise of him 
" who feeds the birds of the air." There is as 
much wisdom to be learned here, by the contem- 
plative mind, as the disciples of Plato could de- 
rive from the instructions of the academus. 

When I left my study this morning, Ada, I put 
in my pocket a small volume, containing extracts 
from the most eminent protestant divines. I am 
fond of reading the works of celebrated men, no 
matter what may be their profession — and among 
the writers of the various denominations, there are 
some of exalted talents and admirable concep- 
tions. D 2 



42 LETTERS TO ADA. 

In turning over the pages of the volume at 
random, 1 fell accidentally upon a passage from 
the far-famed Jeremy Taylor, which, I think, will 
prove a perpetual refutation of all the abuse and 
calumny which the illiberal and interested have 
heaped upon our church. 

" There are many considerations," writes that 
excellent divine, " which may retain persons of 
much reason, and more piety, in its communion. 
They know it to have been the religion of their 
forefathers, which had possession of men's under- 
standings before protestantism had a name. Its 
doctrines have had a long continuance and pos- 
session of the church, which, therefore, cannot 
easily be supposed in the present possessors to be 
a design, since they have received them from so 
many ages. — Then comes the splendour and beau- 
ty of that church. Its pompous service ; the state - 
liness and solemnity of its hierarchy; its name 
catholic : the antiquity of its doctrines, the con- 
stitutional success of its bishops and their imme- 
diate derivation from the apostles, its title to suc- 
ceed St. Peter. Add. to this the multitude and 
variety of persons who are of its persuasion; the 
consent of elder ages. — To this again add its 
happiness in being the instrument in converting 
divers nations — the piety and austerity of its re- 
ligious orders; the severity of its fasts; the great 
reputation of its bishops for faith and sanctity ; the 
known holiness of some of its founders of religi- 



LETTERS TO ADA. 43 

ous orders ; the single life of its bishops and 
priests/' &c. &c. 

Now, my dear Ada, in comparison with Jeremy 
Taylor, what are those ephemeral writers, who 
make it their 'business, in this country, to propa- 
gate slanders, to gather up the cobweb invectives- 
of political economists, whose object was to pan- 
der to the vanity and prejudices of power. Was 
this learned man ignorant, do you think, of 
the history of our church, which certain fanati- 
cal compilers of mis-statements, which they style 
facts, are pleased to designate as the mother of 
iniquity and abominations! It seems to me, the 
most effectual antidote that can be applied to the 
malevolence of those men, is to place before a can- 
did public, the sentiments and language of the 
ornament of the protestant religion, Dr. Jeremy 
Taylor. He soars like an eaglf, far above the 
prejudices of petty minds: he can, with unflinch- 
ing eye, look upon the sun of truth, while other?, 
whose spirits are of two vulgar a kind to bear 
them aloft to such brilliant contemplations, are left 
in gloom and cloud. 

Fix your -eye, Ada, upon that orb of religion, from 
which light is diffused throughout this nether 
world. You are one of the few, who can stand 
the rajs, can tolerate the glory ! Pure spirits are 
destined for regions of light beyond the most bril- 
liant stars: prepare your's for those glorious 



44 LETTERS TO ADA. 

spheres, — the genius of religion points to them, 
my friend, and may we meet — Adieu ! 



LETTER X. 

As I mused, my Ada, upon the beautiful terrace 
which stretches down upon a blooming garden, I 
was checked on my way, by a swarm of busy 
ants, that covered the superficies of the path for a 
considerable space. I was cautious how I trod 
among these interesting insects, whose industry 
has been presented by the Redeemer, to the imita- 
tion of christians— and, as I watched them, I said 
to myself, how these little labourers toil to provide 
for the time to come, and how thoughtless ar e 
most of the rational portion of creation about the 
future ! I was struck, and could not help repeating 
an elegant sonnet, written by a lady, Ada — the 
baroness Caraccioli da Termini : 

" Provida formichetta esce da quella, 
Che natura le die, misera stanza, 
E Scorrendo per tutto have speranza 
Di portar nuovo cibo a la sua cella. 

Da ciel appena questa parte e quella 
Fervido il sole a rhcaldars 'avanza 
Che sua raccolta espone a l'inconstanza 
Del vento, e a'improvisa e ria procella. 

Formichetta infelice ! e pur trovasti 



lE^IIE-RS TO ADA. 45 

In me chi compatir possa il tuo duolo, 
Se indarno, al par di me, ti affiticasti 
Tuin van gioisti, in vano io mi consolo 
In aver raunato esca che basta : 
Disperde ogni fatica un soffio sdio — " 

It is no easy matter to translate well from any 
foreign language: but I confess, that with me, the 
most difficult of all attempts is to put into English 
verse a good Italian sonnet. — Pardon me, then, if 
I do not succeed in the present. You are welcome 
to it, my Ada, as it is : — 

The prudent little emmet strays about 

From her poor cell, by nature's hand dug out; 

Scouring, with patient industry, the earth 

In quest of some provision : from the birth 

Of the Aurora — as the orb of day 

Ascends the heavens, all she seeks to lay 

In her small granary, may be swept away 

By wind and storm. Poor ant, thou find'st in me, ,1 

One who can feel compassion for thy worth ! 

And if in vain, as it appears to be, 

Thou strugglest to provide for future want, 

I think how little / can hope, poor ant, 

The good things I have treasured to enjoy, 

Which one small breath, alas ! may suddenly destroy-. 

And yet man exhausts all his labours, wastes all 
his strength, in hoarding up perishable treasures — 
which cannot follow their owner farther than the 
tomb ; while he is reckless of those eternal things 
which only commence after the present life ! 



40 LETTERS TO ADA. 

Am I too grave a moralist, dear Ada ? alas ! I 
have seen instances of persons, who were not only 
regardless themselves of their immortal interest, 
but sought to interfere with the consciences of 
those under their care : unamiable beings, who 
imbued with prejudices against the catholic church) 
exerted all their influence and authority, to prevent 
their relations, or friends, from following their own 
most sacred and awful convictions ! 

You may turn Moravian, Socinian, Unitarian, 
any thing Ada, and not much will be said about 
it — but become a Catholic, and there is a general 
excitement — u What ! has she forgotten herself so 
far |" exclaims one: " Has she really lost her senses, 
then? exclaims another. All her friends are in arms : 
the clergyman who receives her into the church is 
denounced, her dearest associates cease to be her 
intimates, and, to speak in plain terms, a persecu- 
tion is commenced against her. 

I am not rash in making these remarks, I speak 
from experience ; I am representing in description 
many a striking original — and I think you will 
agree with me, Ada, when you call to your recol- 
lection the history of a young and much injured 
convert whom you knew when living, and over 
whose grave you have wept, for her untimely fate. 
You will not object that I should bring the details 
of that history again before your mind, I know 
you will shed some tears at the recital, but — fare* 
well. 



47 



LETTER XL 



Among the tomb-stones, Ada, which arrest the 
stranger's eve, as he muses through the grave-yard 
belonging to the Cathedral of — there is one, sim- 
ple in its construction, pure in its design, surround- 
ed by a neat pailing, and shaded by a young cy- 
press, bearing the name of her who there lies buri- 
ed. While others are filled with sculptured pfraise, 
and melancholy panegyric, upon this is carved the 
monosylable — Jane. This is all her epitaph ! The 
wild-flower blossoms over the remains of her, who, 
had she not been brought to a cruel, and prema- 
ture end, would now be its rival in freshness and 
bloom ! There is no one who visits that sadly, 
beautiful spot, devoted to the dead of the Cathe- 
dral, but, after reading the many elegant and 
some well merited eulogies inscribed upon their 
monuments, turns, w T ith infinite interest, to this 
and feels that there must be something plaintive 
associated with that brief word — Jane. 

Yes, stranger, her story is a doleful one ; she fell 
in the spring-tide of youth, a victim to the unre 
lenting prejudices of her once dearest friends; she 
pined away in the deepest pangs of affliction, a 
martyr to her conscience, and there lie her ashes ! 

You knew her well, dear Ada, when she was 
the glory of her family: beautiful, accomplished 
and gay as the timidly sportive fawn. She was 



48 LETTERS TO ADA. 

then a protestant, rigidly devoted to her churcfa ? 
first in all good works, and zealous in her princi- 
ples. You have seen her, yes I know too, Ada 7 
you have frequently accompanied her, when she 
left the comforts of her fire-side, to carry relief to* 
some poor sufferer, to wrap in comfort some wretch- 
ed babe, to administer solace and aid to some heart- 
broken widow. You have seen her, an angel of 
charity and love, cheering with her presence, the 
despondency of sickness, dispersing with her 
smiles, the deep-fixed gloom of want and derelic- 
tion, and delighting, with more buoyancy of heart y 
in such scenes of mercy, than in the beauteous 
circles which she adorned and enlivened. 

In one of her errands of charity, as she was dis- 
tributing tracts from door to door, with the purest 
intention of enlightening, as she thought, a catho- 
lic clergyman, she ventured to call at his house. 
She had never conversed with a priest, and she 
conscientiously pitied his delusion, and trembled 
for his condition. 

She was met at the door by the reverend gentle- 
man, whose manners were refined, and whose ac- 
quaintance with the world extensive. 

4t Pardon me," she said, "dear Sir;" perhaps 
it may be deemed an unjustifiable obtrusion on my 
part, thus to present myself before you, without 
any introduction ; but I have so far overcome my- 
self, and set aside the formalities otherwise to be 



LETTERS TO ADA. 49 

observed, for the purpose of presenting you a tract, 
will jou accept it?" 

" With great pleasure," returned the priest — 
" and allow me to ask you to walk into my 
room — your motive in presenting me this tract 
must be sincere ; and I respect sincerity wherever 
I meet it." 

Jane entered the room. Every thing around 
seemed strange ; over the mantel piece hung a pic- 
ture of the Pope, whom she had been taught to re- 
gard as antichrist ; around the walls were ranged 
other sacred pictures, and on his secretary stood 
an ivory crucifix. 

A conversation immediately ensued on contro- 
versial topics, and was conducted with becoming 
mildness, perspicuity, and elegance, by the priest. 
He explained to her the light in which we view 
the Pope, the nature of the veneration we pay to 
images and to the crucifix: he marked, with pecu- 
liar emphasis, the difference between the proper 
doctrines of the church, and the misrepresentations 
of those doctrines. The effect of this interview was 
a correspondence on religious subjects, which con- 
tinued for six months. — During that period Jane 
read every thing that was put into her hands by 
her ministers, to save her, as they said, and by the 
catholic clergyman, to convince her of the truth. 

After a thorough investigation, and a difficult 
struggle with her dearest prejudices, she deter- 

E 



50 LETTERS TO ADA. 

mined to embrace the tenets of that church which 
she had learned to identify with error and sacri- 
lege. Being fully instructed, she was admitted to 
communion, at the foot of the altar, in the little 
gothic chapel of 

Oh, my Ada, what an edifying sight it was to 
behold this fervent christian, bathed in tears, and 
rapt in divine centemplation, receiving, for the first 
time, the body of the Lord. It was early on a 
bright Sunday of May, w T hen the first-born flow- 
ers of the garden decorated and perfumed the 
tabernacle, and the gentle tapers calmly glimmer- 
ed, like the peace-stars of Eden, around the shrine 
of saint 

There knelt the lovely convert, a wreath of flow- 
ers on her head ; a w T hite vail flowing to the 
ground ; a smile of rapture upon her cheek ; her 
hands softly clasped on her bosom; and her eye 
beaming with serenity and joy. 

Oh ! from that heaven 

To which her spirit hath now flown 
(By persecution from this cold world driven J 

Angels, my Ada, then looked down 
And smiled upon the sight : 

They saw in her, 
One, fit to mingle in their throng 
Too pure, too meek, to be a sufferer 

On earth, and now she shines among 4 
Her sister- angels bright. 



LETTERS TO ADA. 51 

I pause here, Ada : we shall soon arrive at the 
conclusion of her history— until then. Adieu. 



LETTER XII. 

I resume the story of Jane. Dear Ada, have 
you not wept yourself almost sick, at the manner 
in which she who had been her family's idol as a 
Protestant, was afterwards treated as a Catholic : 

On returning home from the chapel, she was 
met not with the welcome of a parent's love, but 
with stern reproof, and cold disdain. Even her 
youngest sisters, who formerly used to rush into 
her arms, and vie for the first embrace, were in- 
structed to keep aloof, and look askance ! Oh, 
what a pang to the tender heart of Jane ! What 
agony did she not suffer, when she found her fa- 
ther's house, the once abode of love and happiness, 
suddenly converted into a strange place, in which 
she felt as lost ! 

" What means this woful change papa!" she 
sighed, as her father coldly past her by, and burst 
into a flood of tears — Her father made no reply. 

She then flew into her mother's room — but on 
her mother's face the benign expression of affec- 
tion smiled no more ; she fixed a scowling look on 



52 LETTERS TO ADA. 

Jane, and exclaimed : " disgrace ! disgrace !" 

" Oh mamma!" she sighed — and sobbed bitterly, 
" how have 1 become the disgrace" — she could say 
no more. 

" Yes you have brought shame upon your fa- 
mily." 

" Have I been guilty of any crime, mamma I" 

" Guilty ! no words can express the enormity of 
your guilt." 

" What then have I done I" 

u Do you ask me such a question ? Where 
were you this morning? Whence have you just 
come ? What have you been led to " 

" Mamma, I became a catholic from convic- 
tion " 

" So much the greater guilt— you acknowledge 
that you are convinced you are lost, gone, ruined — " 

"Alas! my dearest, dearest mamma, speak 
not thus r " 

" You will no longer find a mother in me— 
You have forfeited my love, you have incurred 
the displeasure of your family for ever!" 

" For ever !" exclaimed Jane — and almost dis- 
tracted with anguish, left her mother's room. 

Yes, Ada, it was for ever ! for Jane there was no 
more the endearment of home ; the angel of peace 
took his flight from that sanctuary, where the 
demon of prejudice prevailed. The temptation to 
relapse, to yield, was powerful ; no, to a spirit like 



LETTERS TO ADA. 53 

her's, it was nought. Her conscience told her she 
was acting well ; the panoply of heaven was ex- 
tended over her heart, and, with the grace of him 
who penetrates the secrets of the soul, and who 
judgeth justices, she acquired an almost omnipo- 
tent energy. For the sake of her heavenly Father, 
she could brave the frowns of her earthly parents, 
whom still she loved — adored : and, in order to ob- 
taina mansion in his kingdom, she hesitated not to 
be exiled from'their house, of which, but a short time 
since, she was deemed the guardian angel. She 
remembered the awful sentence of the Redeemer, the 
most dutiful of all children : " he that loveth father 
and mother more than me, is not worthy of me." 

Among strangers, however, there was not want- 
ing an asylum for the young victim of paternal 
intolerance : the bosom of sympathy beat warmly 
in her regard, and hundreds of new friends emu- 
lated one another in wiping away her tears, and 
inspiring her with consolation. 

But, what can compensate for the loss of home ! 
what could soothe the wasting affliction of a heart, 
which clung with the tenderest devotion, to the 
sacred associations of her family ! No, Ada, there 
was nothing to support her moral energy but re- 
ligion ; her physical strength began to yield, and 
her spirits, lately so elastic and buoyant, to wither 
and decay. She sickened, and, in the space of a 
few weeks, she was but the shadow of herself, the 

E 2 



54 LETTERS TO ADA. 

skeleton of Jane ! She could not eat ; sleep fled 
from her pillow : and death hastened apace. You 
were among the few true friends, who did not for- 
sake her; at the peril of the intimacy of her fa- 
mily, you sat by her bed-side, during her illness, 
you mingled your tears with her's, you breathed 
the spirit of solace into her sinking bosom. 

You witnessed the last moments of a perfect 
christian — praying, with oppressive emotions, for 
her dear parents ; naming, with kindling affection, 
her little sisters; and only expressing one wish, to 
die in their arms ; — she died in your's, Ada — 

And while that tomb, that simple tomb, 

Beneath the willow shall remain, 
The stranger Oft shall learn the doom , 

Recorded in the name of Jane. 

Ada, farewell. 



LETTER XIII. 

May it not then be asserted, with some grounds, 
dear Ada, that there exists even in this free coun- 
try an unrelenting spirit of opposition to the ca- 
tholic religion ? Was I guilty of rashness when I 
remarked, that, if a member of a family brought up 
in any dissenting denomination, becomes a ca^ 
tholic, too often a persecution is commenced, and 



LETTERS TO ADA. 55 

every means had recourse to. in order to shake the 
convictions, and fetter the liberty of the convert ! 

Still, notwithstanding this, how many have de- 
fied all opposition, have risen above all prejudice 
and attached themselves to the catholic church; 
From all ranks of society, from the first class of 
wealth and fashion — young and old, male and fe- 
male, ministers and laymen, I could number many. 

Yes, Ada, even the desks of Protestantism have 
been forsaken by some of their most eminent men, 
who have done homage to the truth of our church, 
and become her firmest pillars. You have not 
forgotten the conversion of the honourable and 
reverend George Spencer, formerly chaplain to the 
Bishop of London, and brother to lord Althorp — 
I knew him well, dear Ada ; I saw him a simple 
student in the English college at Rome; I heard 
him deliver his first discourse, as a catholic divine, 
in the church of Gesu Maria, in the Corso, to a 
crowded assemblage o^ English, and Americans : I 
marked the sincerity of his manner, plain but dig- 
nified ; serious but amiable ; energetic but liberal. 

It afforded me extreme pleasure to meet in per- 
son that illustrious character, concerning whose 
conversion, which was denied by a writer in the 
Gazette of , I had been drawn into a corres- 
pondence. The account of his change, which 
was stated in that paper to be a fabrication, I 
found to be perfectly authentic : all the details 



56 LETTERS TO ADA. 

were true, all the facts as they originally occur- 
red : and I cordially shook the hand of my brother 
priest, the son of lord Spencer. 

In our country, Ada, several potestant minis- 
ters have embraced the catholic religion. Within 
my own recollection there were four — three of 
whom are still living, practising, with primitive 
fervour, the duties of that church. The other is 
dead — and never died a man of more sterling in- 
tegrity, honest conviction, and genuine virtues? 
than George I*******. 

Faith has lighted her torch over his grave ; and 
peace watches over his ashes ! 

These men were educated in prejudice, and, be- 
fore they made themselves thoroughly acquainted 
with catholicity, as much opposed to its doctrines 
as they were afterwards convinced of their truth. 
It was a glorious triumph to our cause, to gain 
over, at once, from the protestant church four of 
her former champions. It was a spectacle calcu- 
lated to awaken public attention, and induce in- 
vestigation. "What!" did many observe, "If 
such men as these, learned, wise, and virtuous, 
brought up from their cradle in a system so differ- 
ent from that which they embraced, could, after 
mature inquiry, avow their change in so import- 
ant a matter, must they not have had solid grounds 
to act on ? 

Yes, they had, dear Ada. they could not be ac- 
cused of interested motives, for they resigned their 



LETTERS TO ADA- 57 

livings and threw themselves upon theirtalents, and 
their resources. They must have been influenced 
by supernatural inducements. Their subsequent 
conduct has proved it, and their example should 
serve as a model of imitation for others. 

I have placed it before you, Ada, because I 
know you will admire their consistency; and, I 
feel too, that when once convinced, your name 
will be added to their' s, as another light kindled 
from the sun of truth, and mingling its meek lus- 
tre with the splendour of- religion — Adieu. 



LETTER XIV. 

I write this under a broad oak, dear Ada, on as 
beautiful a morning as ever dawned on the world. 
Upon the lawn, fragrant with fresh grass, and be- 
spangled with dew-drops, the snowy sheep are 
browzing and the tender lambs are sporting. And, I 
remember, besides, that this is your birth day, Ada. 

This is thy birthday — know'st thou not, fair friend, 
That from thy years of life one more hath gone 
For ever, and for ever ! — hast thou ne'er 
Paused in thine innocence before the leaves 
That show their first, fair greenness to the spring? 
Perchance while viewing them, some lovely one, 
Nipped in its youth, hath fallen at thy feet, 
And withered, never to be fair again, 



58 LETTERS TO ADA. 

That fallen leaf, methinks, resembles, Ada, 
The year which hath just left thee. There are still 
Many remaining — but there is one less. 

Yet hath thy birthday joys to greet thee still ; 
Health, vigour, beauty, still are left with thee. 
Hope's wild, yet fragrant flower, is opening bright 
And heaven is smiling on thine innocence. 

This is thy birthday — yes it is — it is : 
Then joy be with thee and thy parents ; joy 
With all who soothe thee with the name of friend, 
And as thy years flow from thee, turn thine eyes 
To that bright heaven, where time shall be no more. 



For my own part, I love to carry my thoughts 
into eternity, where the spirits of the just are 
mingling in the communion ofheaven, and looking 
down with vigilant anxiety upon their friends who 
are still struggling in this valley of tears. I am 
not among those, who hold, that the saints in the 
bosom of their God, have forgotten their brethren 
on earth; that they feel no interest in, and have 
no knowledge of, the affairs of mortals. 

No, Ada, u I believe in the communion of 
saints." — I believe that I may address my prayers 
to them, and I believe that they can hear, and 
through the merits of Christ, can assist me. Yes, 
all this I believe, notwithststanding the charge of 
idolatry which is alleged against me, for so 
doing, by no obscure opponents. 

I will examine whether the charge be ground- 
ed — whether for requesting a parent or a friend 



LETTERS TO ADA. 59 

in heaven to pray for me, I am to be ranked among 
the pagans, and made like to those who invoked 
the gods and goddesses of old. 

The reformation, dear Ada, was not undertaken 
on this ground : when Luther separated from the 
ancient church, it was not because he saw in the 
practice of praying to the saints anything that 
bordered on idolatry; he had other motives; he 
was impelled by other causes. For, in his sermon 
on the feast of St. John the Baptist, addressing 
his audience on this very topic, he says: " you do 
not sin by asking them (the saints,) to pray for 
you." 

The pretext of idolatry was assumed, as the 
learned Dr. Milner remarks, by the Duke of So- 
merset, with a view of inflaming the passions of the 
ignorant against the catholic church, and in or- 
der to effect the revolution which ensued. The 
tenet regarding the invocation of saints, was ac- 
cordingly misrepresented — it was identified with 
the senseless rites of paganism ; it was denounced 
as derogatory from the infinite merits of Christ, 
and contradictory to the plain meaning of the 
scriptures. 

This was a popular manoeuvre: — the igno- 
rant multitude began to imagine that the religion 
of Christ was at stake — and that it depended 
on their zeal and energy, to save the last remnant 
of truth ; to kindle once more the dying embers 



60 LETTERS TO ADA. 

of pure religion — and to inflict a merited chastise- 
ment on those sacrilegious beings, who had spread 
darkness over the face of Christianity, and almost 
plunged the world back into the chaos of idola- 
try. 

Not was this spirit confined to the ignorant and 
the low ; it communicated itself to many of the 
ablest writers of those days, it breathed through 
their discourses, and insinuated its venom into all 
their productions. 

The outcry raised against this doctrine at that 
era of confusion and change, has rebounded from 
clime to clime, and from century to century. The 
echo of the present age, and in our free republic, 
still repeats, though with a fainter sound — Idola- 
try. 

Yes, Ada, too often does the grave " professor," 
instead of instructing his theological pupils in the 
science of truth, instead of proclaiming facts, and 
expounding ecclesiastical history, too often, I re- 
peat, does he forget his dignity, and join in the 
vulgar cry — Idolatry. 

Even the drowsy " watchman," as he paces 
his solitary rounds through the darkness of the 
night, as he attempts to vociferate the hours, stam- 
mers, with stentorian lungs, — Idolatry. 

Thus is the popular shout kept up, from the 
all-solemn Doctor of Divinity, down to the all- 
ludicrous menial of the midnight tribe ! 



LETTERS TO ADA. 61 

What motive can there be, dear Ada, in this 
age of investigation and liberal opinion, to con- 
tinue the odious shout ? Is it to be supposed 
that Americans are to be alarmed by the bugbear 
of old English invention ! Is there not intellect, 
judgment, perspicacity enough, in the minds of the 
" Lord's of human kind," to see through the flim- 
sy texture in which prejudice and policy have 
laboured to involve the tenets of our church? 

I have merely to state those tenets as we really 
believe them, as they are taught by the Church 
and the candid minds of our countrymen will 
perceive how much we have been injured and 
abused. They will be convinced that it is only 
by misstating, that, our opponents can succeed in 
exciting opposition, and keeping alive prejudice. 
It frequently happiness, that the most rigid be- 
lievers in those misrepresentations, when they dis- 
cover how systematically they have been imposed 
upon — are the first to enter into an investiga- 
tion of religious matters — and often too the first 
in returning to the bosom of their mother, the 
much injured and calumniated church. 

Oh Ada, that I may succeed in convincing you 
that the ideas which you have derived from your 
earliest education on the subject of our religion, 
are incorrect — I know what the result will be — 
Adieu. 

F 



62 



LETTER XV. 



I was on the point of returning home to break- 
fast, after concluding my last to you, dear Ada, 
when a gentleman of advanced years, and accom- 
plished manners rode up, and inquired of me the 
way to — - — . He observed that he was a mission- 
ary of the church, and his object in going 

to the village in question was to preach a series of 
sermons. As I found him communicative, I took 
the liberty of asking him to accompany me to my 
country-house, to rest himself, and breakfast with 
me. He readily consented, and, in a few minutes ? 
we reached the a alley green." 

The reverend gentleman had no idea that I was 
a catholic, and I deemed it prudent, lest I might 
have destroyed his appetite, not to reveal the se- 
cret to him until we had finished our breakfast. 

" You observed sir," I then said, " that you are 

on your way to in order to deliver a set of 

sermons, may I inquire, on what subject it is your 
intention to preach :" 

" I purpose sir," he replied, " to expose the ab- 
surdity of the Roman catholic doctrines, they are 
so perfectly unscriptural, so untenable, that I am 
surprised how any one who feels any respect for 
the christian system, can possibly admit them." 



LETTERS TO ADA. 63 

11 And still they are believed by most of the 
learned, and the good," I returned. 

The missionary looked doubtfully upon me, and 
becoming suspicious of my orthodoxy, would glad- 
ly have diverted the conversation, had t not pur- 
posely continued the subject. 

" I thank you sincerely, sir," he blandly said, 
"for the hospitality you have extended to me 

" and was on the point of departing, 

when, 

" Pray, reverend sir, may not your ideas of 
Catholicism be erroneous:" I asked— 

"Every one knows enough of that religion to 
condemn it," was his reply. " For instance, the 
doctrine it maintains of praying to the saints is 
abominable. It places Mary, a mere woman, on 
an equal footing with the Son of God, and trans- 
forms the saints into deities." 

"Are you certain that the doctrine of the Ro- 
man catholic church is as you have stated it?" I 
aga.n asked. 

" Read the Renunciation of Popery, — Blanco 

White, the History of Popery, Dr. 's Essay, 

and judge for yourself." 

".Read Dr. Milner, the Amicable Discussion, 
and the Papist Misrepresented and Represented," I 
retorted. " It is surely not from the avowed ene- 
mies of the church, that you are to learn her genuine 
doctrines. We should drink of the pure fountain. 



64 LETTERS TO ADA. 

if we desire to be refreshed with a limpid draught ? 
and not of that turbid stream, thickened with the 
influx of a thousand prejudices and a thousand 
misrepresentations." 

"If you do not believe the doctrine, my dear, 
sir, as 1 have stated it to be, you cannot be a catho- 
lic," he insisted. 

" I do not believe it in that sense," I returned, 
" and yet I am a. catholic : and moreover, I con- 
tend that were I to admit your interpretation of it, 
instead of being a catholic, I would be an idola- 
ter." 

" You are an enlightened scholar,' 7 urged the 
missionary, " but the ignorant, do they not believe 
that the saints may be invoked as possessing power 
of themselves, independent of the merits of the Re- 
deemer ?'' 

" The ignorant are taught the common cate- 
chism," I returned : and having a copy upon my 
table, I opened the part relating to this subject, 
and read the following passage: " We are to ho- 
nour them (the saints) as God's special friends and 
servants, but not with the honour which be- 
longs TO GOD." 

The missionary became manifestly impatient, 
and begging me to excuse him, as the time ap- 
pointed to reach the village had almost arrived, 
and not a moment was to be lost. He mounted 
his horse, bade me good morning, and rode off. I 



LETTERS TO ADA. 65 

did not hear what was the tenor of his ser- 
mon on the subject we were discussing. But I 
should not wonder, Ada, if he repeated the very 
same misstatements which I carefully sought to 
rectify. 

When for the future, then, you hear us stigma- 
tized as idolaters for praying to the saints, remem- 
ber the missionary. — Adieu. 



LETTER XVI. 

" Yet hear me, Samson ; not that I endeavour 
To lessen or extenuate my offence : 
But that on th' other side, if it be weighed 
By itself, with aggravations, not surcharged, 
Or else with just allowance counterpoised, 
I may, if possible, thy pardon find, &c." 

You have read the Samson Agonistes of Milton, 
dear Ada, and remember, no doubt, these lines, 
put into the mouth of Delila. Had the missionary 
remained a little longer, I might have repeated 
them to him, in whose estimation, I was guilty of 
the most grievous offence against the spirit of 
Christianity, by admitting the propriety of praying 
to the saints. I rejoice that you have the patience 
to read my letters, and hear my views and argu- 
ments on these important articles of religious faith. 

F 2 



66 LETTERS TO ADA. 

Is it then true, that the catholic church teaches 
that the saints possess any power to grant our pe- 
titions, except as far as they derive it from God ! 
can I pray to the virgin Mary as to one who can 
command her son in the strict acceptation of the 
term 1 am I to believe that the merits of Christ are 
insufficient of themselves, or that it is absolutely 
necessary that I should invoke any particular 
saint, in order to have those merits applied to my 
soul ! In a word, dear Ada, is it derogatory to the 
mediatorship of the Redeemer to recommend my- 
self to the prayers of the just in heaven ? 

I refer you to the Council of Trent, the constitu- 
tion, I may call it ; of the catholic church : in 
which our doctrines are distinctly defined, and 
from which there can be no appeal. 

In the twenty-fifth session, you will find this pro- 
position. " The saints reigning with Christ, offer 
up their prayers for men. It is good and useful 
suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to 
their prayers — to obtain favours from God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alone our Redeemer 
and Saviour." 

And in the catechism of the Council, published 
by order of Pope Pius V., part the fourth on prayer, 
it is expressly stated, that " we do not address God 
or the saints in the same manner: God we implore 
to grant us the blessings of which we stand in need ; 
but the saints because they are the friends of God, 



LETTERS TO ADA. 67 

we solicit to undertake the advocacy of our cause 
with him, to obtain for us, from him, all necessaries 
for soul and body. Hence we make use of two 
different sorts of prayer ; to God we properly say, 
u have mercy on us f but to the saints, " pray for 
us." 

This is very different from the doctrine imputed 
to us, dear Ada, in the periodicals, and bigoted 
essays of the day. I adhere not to the creed form- 
ed for me by my adversaries, but to that drawn up 
and promulgated by the councils of the church. 

Again permit me to direct your attention to 
another authority of high respectability: which 
every catholic reveres, and whose statements of our 
tenets are, in every respect, conformable to the 
unanimous belief of all instructed members of the 
church. 

Drs. Challoner and Gother are two venerable 
names in the records of Catholicism : under their 
sanction and supervision, a small book was pub- 
lished, to which I before alluded, entitled " The 
Papist Misrepresented and Represented :" in that 
book I find the following anathema: " Cursed is 
he that believes the saints in heaven to be his re- 
deemers, that prays to them as such, or that gives 
God's honour to them, or to any other creature." 

To this anathema, I most cordially subscribe; 
and so will you, Ada, and every consistent chris- 
tian. Nor will I, or you, or any other christian, 



68 LETTERS TO ADA. 

hesitate a moment to say " amen" to this one: 
" Cursed is every goddess worshipper, that believes 
the B. Virgin Mary to be any more than a crea- 
ture, that worships her, or puts his trust in her 
more than in God ; that believes her above her son, 
or that she can in any thing command him." 

Judge now, my dear Ada, whether the invoca- 
tion of saints is idolatrous ; and whether I should 
be condemned for vindicating its propriety. 

And yet 1 know, it will be said, 

Repeated, urged, insisted on, 
That rites idolatrous are paid 

To saints, by every genuine son 
Of popery ! 

That Mary, like some goddess old, 
Some Juno glittering on her car, 

Can o'er her Son dominion hold 
And hurl his thunderbolts afar 
O'er land and sea. 

That the deluded papist leaves 
The altar of the sovereign Lord, 

And making her his goddess, weaves 
His chaplets at her shrine — adored, 
(Oh! profanation !) 

In place of Him, the eternal One, 

Who claims the homage of mankind: 

And heedless of the only Son — 
To saints and Mary is confined 
His adoration ! 



LETTERS TO ADA. 69 

This is not the most elegant poetry, my Ada, but 
perhaps a ludicrous strophe or two will occasionally 
tend to vary the monotony of a grave controver- 
sial correspondence. Perhaps there is no subject 
which presents fewer attractions to the young 
mind than that of controversy. Even Moore's 
work, " Travels of an Irish gentleman in search of 
Religion," is left on the shelf untouched and un- 
read, by thousands who devour his Llala Rookh, 
and feast on his Melodies. The Hind and Panther 
of Dryden, which contains as much good poetry as 
any other of his productions, finds very few ad- 
mirers ; and had he written nothing else, he would 
have been, long since, buried in oblivion; or had 
that poem been the offspring of some modern ca- 
tholic, it would have been regarded as unworthy 
a liberal and poetical mind. And yet it is the 
effusion of Dryden. Farewell. 



LETTER XVII. 

I this day heard the doleful news of the death of 

our dear and promising young friend Oscar . 

The letter communicating this intelligence, my 
Ada, now lies on my table deeply sealed with 
black, and stained with the tears of her who wrote 
it. It informs me that his brother is actually at — 



70 LETTERS TO ADA. 

awaiting the arrival in port of the ship which 
brings to his mother's arms the remains of her 
darling ! oh what an amiable youth has been 
taken from us! — what a generous, high-minded, 
religious member of society has fallen! and how 
sad is the reflection, that, after an absence of so 
long a time, when on the point of finishing his 
education in Europe, and about to return to his 
native land, he was attacked by a mortal disease, 
and, ere yet the shores of Europe had disap» 
peared, he died on the sea ! 

Oh never breathed upon this earth 

A nobler, purer, gentler spirit: 
I knew him, Ada, knew his worth, 

His viitue, and his merit! 

His features manly and refined, 

His person elegant and tall, 
His manners graceful, and his mind 

Pure and ethereal — 

Upon the distant shores of France 

Afar from her he lov'd so dearly, 
He sought in science to advance 

And to improve in virtue yearly. 

At length approached the welcome day 

When all his anxious studies o'er, 
He was again to bend his way 

Back, Ada, to his native shore. 

The sea was lovely, through the foam 
The gallant ship in triumph sped : 



LETTERS TO ADA. 71 

As though exulting towards her home 

To bear this boy — she bore him dead- 
Yes, scarcely had the misty peaks 

Of Europe's mountains shrunk away 
Than death sat on his pallid cheeks 

And closed his eyes for ever to the day ! 

The sea breeze has sung his requiem, on the 
trackless ocean, and the mermaids have wept for 
the early and premature fate of poor Oscar ! While, 
we can have no doubt, Ada, the angels have borne 
away his immortal spirit to the regions of the good 
and the pious. Oh ! may not he, that loving son, 
brother, friend, in the bosom of his God, pour 
forth his prayers for those who are left bewailing 
behind him ! where is the feeling heart that could 
doubt it ! where the bosom that could not throb 
to think that that there is in heaven one spirit that 
will ever interest itself for an exile on earth. And 
if he can pray for me, what impropriety can 
there be in my invoking him; will not his prayers 
avail me? does not St. James declare that " the 
prayers of the righteous avail much." He maRes 
no distinction between those of a righteous jnan 
on earth, or in heaven. The proposition is gene- 
ral and explicit ; u the prayers of the righteous 
avail much ." 

Gentle spirit, that hast departed from that 
cornel v frame which now lies in the stream, look 
down from the celestial spheres to which thou hast 



72 LETTERS TO ADA. 

flown, upon thy friend ! mingle thy orisons with 
those of the myriads of spirits which surround the 
throne of the most High, and pour forth the odours 
of their prayers, to the Lamb who was slain for 
us. Pray for me, that I may pass in safety 
through the infinite perils which beset my path in 
this valley of wo ; and forget not her, to whom I 
address these letters, fair Ada. 

Will you not join in this supplication, dear 
lady? oh how consoling it is to the feeling heart 
to sigh out its aspirations to those who are in 
heaven ! Adieu. 



LETTER XVIII. 

St. Paul, dear Ada, was in the habit of recom- 
mending himself to the prayers of the faithful. In 
his epistle to the Romans, fifteenth chapter and 
thirtieth verse, he writes thus : " I beseech you, 
therefore, brethren, through our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and iy the charity of the Holy Ghost, that you 
assist me in your prayers for me to God," &c. 

Cannot 1, with the same spirit, and always re- 
ferring the efficacy of their prayers to the merits 
of Christ, call upon the brethren in Heaven, to as- 
sist me ? 

God himself commanded the friends of Job, to 



LETTERS TO ADA. 73 

go to that good man, and supplicate his inter- 
cession.— You will find this fact recoided in the 
forty -first chapter of the book of Job, verses seven 
and eight: "And after the Lord had spoken these 
words to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite; my 
wrath is kindled against thee and against thy' two 
friends ; because you have not spoken the thing 
that is right before me, as my servant Job hath 
take unto you therefore, seven oxen, and seven 
rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer for 
yourselves a holocaust : and my servant Job shall 
pray for you ; his face I will accept, that folly 
be not imputed to thee." 

Thus does it appear manifest, that, the Lord 
would not receive the holocausts of Eliohaz until 
Job prayed for him. It was a condition, which 
could not to be dispensed with : and, had not 
that holy man interceded for him, the wrath of 
heaven must have fallen upon his head. 

Who knows but there is some Job amono- the 
saints of heaven, whom the Almighty wills me to 
invoke? who can tell, whether it will not depend 
on the prayers of that righteous spirit, that the 
indignation of God may be appeased ? My holo- 
causts, my tears, my supplications may not be ac- 
ceptable: those of Eliphaz were not. Is it then 
improper for me to send up my prayers to the 
saints, beseeching them, if / cannot find mercy 
that they, like Job, would intercede before the throne 
of divine justice! 

G 



74 LETTERS TO ADA. 

But ; it is said we worship the saints. What is 
meant by worship, dear Ada? Do we pay to 
them that adoration which is due to God alone, 
and which he will not suffer to be given to ano- 
ther. If so, we are indeed idolaters — worse than 
the ancient Romans, more inexcusable than the 
modern Chinese. 

I need hardly answer such a question. You 
know full well, that we merely venerate or respect 
the saints, as the special friends of God ; we adore 
only God. 

Nor does it follow because we kneel before an 
image, that we are guilty of idolatry. Abraham 
bowed before the angels, as is related in the 
nineteenth chapter and second verse of Genesis: 
" And when he had lifted up his eyes there ap- 
peared to him three men, standing near him; and 
as soon as he saw them he ran to meet them 
from the door of his tent, and adored down to 
the ground. Think you, Ada, was it idolatry in 
Abraham to prostrate himself thus, before the an- 
gels ? You know that it was not, let it not then 
be deemed idolatry, when the catholic kneels be- 
fore a sacred image. 

Joshua too, as we find recorded in his own book, 
fifth chapter and fourteenth verse, fell on his face 
in the presence of an angel. "Joshua fell on his 
face to the ground, and worshipping, said : what 
saith my Lord to his servant.'' 



LETTERS TO ADA. 75 

We worship the saints, as that great prophet 
worshipped the angel. If it is wrong, he has 
given the example. But who will accuse him 
of derogating from the honour due to God : ca- 
tholics, then, should cease to be vituperated, when 
they have so unexceptionable a precedent to guide 
them. 

But it is objected, saint John attempted to wor- 
ship the angel, and was reproved for so doing — 
'* And I fell upon my face," he writes, " to adore 
him, and he saith to me, see thou do it not ; I am 
thy fellow servant — adore God." This text is 
found in Revelations, chapter nineteenth, tenth 
verse. 

This proves nothing against our dogma, dear 
Ada. In the first place, it must appear evident? 
that one angel would not reprehend, what another 
had approved. But, in the two former cases, the 
angels accepted the worship of Abraham and 
Joshua. John would not therefore have been 
chided, for following the example of those venera- 
ble men. 

He must consequently have imagined that it 
was the Deity himself he was conversing with 
and, under that impression, fell upon his face in 
order to offer him strict and religious adoration — 
that latria, which is due to God alone. It was 
then the angel informed him of his misapprehen- 
sion, and assured him, that it was the vision mere- 



LETTERS TO ADA. 



ly of a servant of the Almighty, not of the Al- 
mighty himself. 

"Adore God." Yes, my Ada, it is to that su- 
preme and omnipotent being, we must pay our 
adoration. But as he does not forbid me to respect 
you, to feel towards you all the regard which your 
merit and virtues deserve, neither is he unwilling 
that I should evince some external tokens of vene- 
ration for those who are already in possession of 
that glory, which is prepared for you — oh may we 
enjoy it together ! Adieu. 



LETTER XIX. 

In conversing, some time since, with a very de- 
voted friend of yours, dear Ada, the subject on 
which I wrote you in my last letter was accident- 
ally brought up. She, at first, had strong objec- 
tions \o praying to the saints. But, after hearing 
several arguments in defence of the doctrine, she 
was compelled to admit, that if they can hear us, 
there can be no impropriety in invoking them. 

Let us examine whether it be necessary for them 
to be omnipresent, in order that our prayers may 
reach them. I affirm that it is not, that through 
the power of Him whose presence they are enjoy- 
ing, and in whose majesty all things are reflected. 



LETTERS TO ADA. 77 

they may know what is going on in this world, and 
may hear the praj'ers which are sent up to them. 

Eliseus was a mortal, and certainly not possess- 
ed of any of the attributes of the Deity, still, from 
the banks of the Jordan, he saw as far as Syria, 
and knew what was going on in that distant re- 
gion. The sacred writer relates that " the king 
of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel 
with his servants saying : in such and such a place 
let us lay ambushes, and the man of God sent to 
the king of Israel saying : beware that thou pass 
not to such a place : for the Syrians are there in 
ambush.' 2 Kings, chap. 6. v. 8 and 9. 

If the prophet in Judea knew what was occur- 
ring in Syria, why cannot the prophet in heaven be 
aware of what is taking place on earth? 

Nay, my dear Ada, our Saviour himself ex- 
pressly assures us, that the angels not only know 
the manifest transactions of the world, but even 
penetrate into the deepest secrecies of the human 
heart. 

He says, in the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke, 
tenth verse. : that " there shall be joy before the an- 
gels of God doing penance," or, as the protestan^ 
version has it repenting. 

Now, that the angels might rejoice at the con- 
version of a sinner, it is surely necessary for them 
to be acquainted with that conversion. But you 

G 2 



78 LETTERS TO ADA. 

will admit Ada, every one will admit, that con- 
version may take place in the silence, and pro- 
foundest secrecy of the soul ; the last dying aspi- 
ration may be sufficient. Consequently the an- 
gels, who rejoice at the repentance of a sinner* 
must see the most silent workings of the human 
conscience Therefore it is plain, that the angels 
know what is transpiring in this nether world. 
But the saints are participators of the sublime pri- 
vileges of the angels, enjoying the same heaven, 
and possessing the same God, therefore the dif- 
ficulty of our friend is solved, and no other objec- 
tion remains in her mind, against the practice of 
praying to them. 

The question how they hear us, is quite irrele- 
vant ; we may as well ask where heaven is. Cer- 
tainly spirits disenthralled from the incumbrances 
of the body, do not stand in need of visual rays, 
and undulating sounds, to see and hear us. If 
with the velocity of the lightning flash, my fancy 
can speed away to the most remote realms of the 
old world ; if, while I am writing in this rustic 
abode, on this side the Atlantic, my imagination 
instantaneously bears me to the cupola of St. Pe- 
ter's, or upon the leaning tower of Pisa, tell me, 
Ada, is it philosophical to ask how the spirits of 
the just, free and glorified, can hear when I in- 
voke them ? 



LETTERS TO ADA 79 

Wrapt into ecstasy, 

And feasting on the presence of their God, 
From their bright thrones on high 

They see the things of earth — th' abode 
Of mortals is traced out upon 

The mirror of his splendour — there they view, 
Reflected brilliantly whate'er is done 

On this dark orb — they hear each sigh 
And count each tear — Ada, believe. 

Adieu, 



LETTER XX. 

You tell me, dear Ada, that Dr. of the 

episcopal church, considers the difficulty of the 
saints hearing our prayers as insuperable. " If they 
can be aware of the events occurring in America 
and Europe, Asia, and Africa, at the same time, 
they must be omnipresent" he remarked. 

This objection I have, I think, already replied 
to : but I am singularly astonished that it should 
be urged by a gentleman, devotedly attached to 
his religion, which believes in the existence of 
witchcraft, sorceries, &c. That is to say, a minister 
admitting all the doctrines of the church of En- 
gland, is bound to believe, that the evil spirit may, 
and sometimes does, exercise his malign influence 
when imprecated in any part of the world. Does 



80 LETTERS TO ADA. 

it follow that he is obliged to believe the devil to 
be omnipresent ? And if that dark spirit can exert 
his diaboiical power over the persons of individuals 
of every clime, how is it that the bright spirits of 
heaven cannot exercise a benevolent and holy in- 
fluence over men, in every region. I think, there- 
fore, that Dr has evinced and expressed much 

inconsistency, in this particular. What think 
you, Ada 1 

The case of Dives and Abraham seems to de- 
cide beyond the cavil of speculation, the question 
under consideration. Dives, after feasting sump- 
tuously, and disregarding the miseries of Lazarus 
died, and, in scripture language, wiis buried in hell. 
Finding himself in that abode of wo and repro- 
bation, he called upon Abraham to relieve his suf- 
ferings. There was a chaos between them ; and 
yet Abraham could hear him. You know the 
particulars of the narration I allude to, and I shall 
not repeat them. 

Now, Ada, if Abraham could hear the com- 
plaints of that unfortunate rich man, why cannot 
Abraham hear the prayers of a soul on earth. 
Heaven, if I may be allowed to speak thus, is not 
more distant from earth, than was the place in 
which Abraham then was, from the realms of 
perdition. 

This objection being removed, can you refuse to 
admit the proposition, that it is lawful and proflta- 



LETTERS TO ADA. 81 

ble to pray to the saints ? that they may assist and 
bless ns ? We read in Genesis, the twenty-second 
chapter and twenty-sixth verse, that Jacob demand- 
ed the blessing of the angel with whom he had 
wrestled: " I will not let thee go," he said, "un- 
less thou bless me." 

Again, in the forty-eighth chapter and sixteenth 
verse, he invoked the angel's blessing upon the 
sons of Joseph, " the angel," he exclaimed, "that 
delivereth me from all evil, bless these boys." 

Certainly, if Jacob could call upon the angel, 
and the angel could hear him, the two-fold diffi- 
culty is resolved: namely, first^ that it is lawful to 
invoke the heavenly spirits ; and secondly, that 
they can hear our invocations; and this, my Ada, 
is the whole secret and mystery of that tenet of 
our church, which is so grossly misrepresented, 
and so recklessly condemned. 

St. John, in the book of Revelations, chapter 
eighth, verses third and fourth, relates how he saw 
the prayers of the saints poured out before the 
throne of God. 

" And another angel came, and stood before the 
altar, having a golden censer: and there ws 
given to him much incense, that he should offer of 
the 'prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar? 
which is before the throne of God. 

" And the smoke of the incense of the prayers 



&Z LETTERS TO ADA. 

of the saints, ascended up before God, from the 
hand of the angel." 

What farther scriptural evidence do we need in 
support of this catholic tenet? I leave you to judge, 
my dear Ada, whether the assertions of our ad- 
versaries on the subject are true or false. After 
calmly reviewing the premises I have established 
on grounds the most incontrovertible, you will 
draw your own consequence— or rather the con- 
sequence will flow, of itself— that it is proper and 
useful to pray to the saints. 

Oh ! as before 

The golden altar, from their censers flinging 
Their incense, angels pour 

The fragrance of their prayers, 
May they remember thee ! when singing 

.Their hallelujahs through the heavenly spheres. 
In one sweet chorus vieing, 

May they implore, 
The pity of our Maker,— wipe thy tears 

Daughter of feeling — cease thy sighing — > 
Angels will pray for Ada, and watch o ? er ! 

Adieu. 



83 



LETTER XXL 



Not long since, I attended, dear Ada, the conse- 
cration of a new Jewish Synagogue : and I must 
confess that much interest was excited in my 
bosom for the strange condition of the once chosen 
people of God. I could not but indulge in the 
most solemn reflections, when I beheld these frag- 
ments of the remnant of Israel, without priest, or 
sacrifice, and with an altered and meagre ceremo- 
nial, dedicating for themselves a temple — oh ! how 
little like that of Jerusalem ! 

No rams smoked on their altars: no oxen pour- 
ed out their blood in sacrifice : no incense, flung 
from the golden censers of the Levites, ascended to 
the throne of the most High. No " workmanship 
of the ephod" appeared — the breast plate of Aaron 
was not to be seen — the eye looked in vain for the 
il tunics and girdles and mitres of glory and beauty." 
The splendid, the magnificent ceremonial of the 
ancient law, has dwindled away into a meagre 
and almost unmeaning form. 

But, while I find fault with the ceremonies of 
the Jewish people, at the present day ; while I de- 
plore their condition, and pity their delusion, I 
must not forget the exclamation of a daughter of 



84 LETTERS TO ADA. 

the Synagogue when witnessing the solemnities of 
Good Friday in the catholic church : " what an 
infatuation to be a christian'?" 

You, too, Ada, have assured me, that a truly 
amiable and elegant companion of yours, once ob- 
served, that she deemed the Catholics as benight- 
ed, and as much to be pitied, as the modern He- 
brews- 
It does not astonish me to perceive how preju- 
diced the Jew r s generally are against us. Birt 
if you continue to devote your attention to the 
arguments which I adduce in favour of my reli- 
gion, you will be able to- convince the otherwise 

intelligent Miss of her mistake. 

Read to her, Ada, what I have said on the sub- 
ject of the invocation of saints : and then inform 
her, on the authority which I am about to bring 
before you, that this tenet was admitted and re- 
duced to practice, hy all Christendom, before the 
Reformation. 

To ascertain the belief of the ancient christians, 
on this topic, we must refer, dear Ada, to the 
writings of the most distinguished men. We must 
consult the fathers of the church whose works 
are extant, monuments at once of their learning 
and their faith. 

St. Irenaeus, who lived but a short time after 
the aspostolic times, in his work against heresy ? 
book fifth, chapter nineteenth, writes thus : 



LETTERS TO ADA. 85 

11 As Eve was seduced to fly from God, so was 
the Virgin Miry induced to obey him, that she 
miorht become thea.Vr.9Cfl/eoflier that had fallen." 

" I will fall on my knees !" exclaims Origen in 
his Treatise on the Lamentations, " and not pre- 
suming, on account of my crimes, to present my 
prayer to God, 1 will invoke all the saints to my 
assistance. O all ye saints of heaven, 1 beseech 
you.. ..fall at the feet of the Lord of mercies for me 
a miserable sinner." 

" Hear now, O daughter of David," cries out 
St. Athanasius, in his work on the gospel, " in- 
cline thine ear to oar prayers ! We raise our cry 
to thee. Remember us, O most holy Virgin ; and 
for the feeble eulogiums we give thee, give us 
some share in thy precious treasure of grace, thou 
who art full of grace." 

" We stand in need of many graces," said St. 
Gregory of Nyssa to the martyr Theodosius : " in- 
tercede for your country before our common mas- 
ter and sovereign We are fearful of great mise- 
ries and the utmost perils. The cruel Scythian ap- 
proaches and threatens war. O soldier fight for 
us. Martyr, speak boldly for us your country- 
men 

" Admonish Peter, solicit Paul, call John, the 
beloved disciple, and let them intercede for the 

churches which they themselves have founded." 

H 



86 LETTERS TO ADA. 

St. Ambrose, in his preparation for death, ex«* 

presses himself thus : 

" That my prayer may become more efficacious, I 
invoke the suffrage of the B. Virgin Mary I im- 
plore the intercession of the Apostles.. ..the assist- 
ance of the martyrs.. ..the supplications of the con" 
fessors." 

St. Augustine bears testimony in his book " on 
the City of God," that it was customary for the 
christians to address this simple prayer to the 
saints: " Remember me." 

In his meditations, chapter fortieth, he calls up- 
on the " holy and immaculate Virgin Mary to in- 
tercede in his behalf — celestial choirs of angels, 
archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evan- 
gelists, martyrs, confessors, priests, levites, monks, 
virgins, and all the Just, by him who has elected 
you, and the contemplation of whom forms your 
felicity, I entreat you to supplicate the Lord for me, 
a miserable sinner." 

These are but a few isolated and brief extracts, 
my dear Ada, from some of the doctors of the 
church, whose names are revered, not only by 
catholics, but by all denominations of Christians. 

An Augustin, an Ambrose, a Jerome, a Chry- 
sostom, a Gregory Nazianzen, a Gregory of Nyssa, 
a Basil, an Athanasius, invoked the saints, demon- 
strated the propriety of it — and I certainly feel 



LETTERS TO ADA. 87 

more safe in imitating such illustrious personages, 
than in condemning the venerable dogma which 
they reduced to practice* 

Tell me, Ada, would you not rather be the dis- 
ciple of those sainted men, than of the author of 
certain quaint and shallow " Renunciations." 
When } T ou hear the modern teacher inveighing, 
with dogmatic self-sufficiency, against -he invoca- 
tion of saints, think of the testimonies 1 have cited 
in its vindication ; and judge for yourself. — Adieu . 



LETTER XXI-L ' 

When on a visit to New-York, last winter, I 
chanced to pass, in the evening, by a small church, 
which, being well lighted up, presented an inviting 
appearance. With the view of examining the in- 
terior, and to hear the sermon which was then 
going on, I entered, and seated mj'self in a remote 
place to observe more easily and freely every thing 
around. There were few auditors of the discourse, 
which was delivered by a middle-aged gentleman, 
of grave appearance, and unaffected manner. 

From the text, I augured favourably of the 
discourse: I believed, that a minister commenting 
on the beauti^i precept of charity, could not utter 
an expression which would not breathe sympathy 



88 LETTERS TO ADA. 

and benevolence towards all mankind. But what 
was my surprise, dear Ada, when digressing from 
the amiable topic, he began to descant on the 
fanaticism of the crusaders, and the terrors of the 
Vatican, and the abominations of popery. 

Oh charity, sister of faith, 

And hope divine! 
Daughter of heaven, tell me, where hath 

Thy spirit fixed her shrine ? 
Methought that in the unruffled breast 

Of meek religion's humble priest, 
That spirit should preside : 

That he who peace proclaims, should be 
The pattern of his ministry, 

The foe to envy and to pride. 
But no ; in preaching peace to earth 

He grasps the thunders of his wrath 
And hurls them at the sacred hearth. 

Kindling anew the bigot's flame, 

And strewing, in religion's name, 
With discoid and dismay his neighbour's path. 

Let us see, dear Ada, whether all the ministers of 
the church to which the gentleman of the little 
temple belongs, were as uncharitable, and illiberal. 
Consult the works of the father of the Reforma- 
tion, and though you will find in them incredible 
inconsistency, still, in his more solemn moods, ho 
does not refuse his tribute of respect for the custom 
of praying to the saints. In his treatise "on the 
Six Precepts," chapter fifth, he holds this lan- 
guage: 



LETTERS TO ADA. 89 

" The saints can do all things, and through 
them God will grant you as much as you believe 
you will receive from them." 

" I have never denied," he again writes in his 
reply to the theologians of Louvain, " that we were 
assisted by the merits and prayers of the saints — 
as some miserable wretches have maliciously en- 
deavoured to impute to me." 

QEcolampadius, in his notes on the homilies of 
St. Chrysostom. declares : 

"■ That the saints pray for us. Neither would I 
assert that it is an impiety and idolatry to implore 
their protection. The saints are inflamed with 
charity in heaven ; they cease not to praj> for us. 
What hawn therefore is there in asking them to 
do that which we believe to be agreeable to God. 
— It is what has been done by Chrysostom and by 
.Gregory of Nazianzum in his panegyric on St. 
Cyprian ; and what has been practised by almost 
all the churches in the, east and west." 

Am I then to be condemned for observing a 
practice which, according to the admission of one 
of the founders of protestantism, was observed by 
the greatest and most venerable personages of the 
eastern and western churches ! 

But, there are other authorities still more con- 
vincing, my fair friend. There is the celebrated 
Dr. Montague, bishop of Chichester and Norwich, 
who, in his Antidote, page twenty, writes thus : 

H2 



00 LETTERS TO ADA. 

" I do not deny but the saints are mediators ,as 
they are called, of prayer and intercession, but in 
general, and for all in general. They interpose 
with God by their supplications, and mediate by 
their prayers." 

Again, in a treatise on the Invocation of Saints, 
page 103, he gives the reason of this belief: 

"This," he says, "is the common voice with 
general concurrence, without contradiction of 
reverend and learned antiquity, for aught I could 
ever read or understand : and I see no cause or 
reason to dissent from them touching intercession 
in this kind." 

Page 118: " Indeed I grant Christ is not wrong- 
ed in his mediation. It is no impiety to say as 
they do : Holy Mary pray for me ; Holy Peter, 
pray for me." 

Will you not consent then, my dear Ada, to 
join with me, after such authority, in invoking the 
saints to think of us, poor exiles, in their prayers : 
that we may be guided in peace to the realms of 
bliss which are prepared for us. O Holy Virgin ! 
obtain, by thy intercession, that Ada may be for 
ever happy. Adieu. 



91 



LETTER XXIII. 

Who has not heard of Bishop Heber, dearest 
Ada, and the sweet effusions which he breathed 
from a sacred lyre, among the fragrant bowers and 
lovely scenery of the east ? Seldom has the genius 
of poetry inspired the heart of her bard with senti- 
ments more pure, and language more simply 
beautiful, than flowed from the fresh fountains of 
his soul. Pathos, sublimity, elegance, and piety are 
blended in one deep strain, in the warblings of his 
lyre. 

Upon the banks of Ganges' stream 

The bard of Britain sir : 
And echo, breathless, it. would seem, 
To catch each wild note of his theme 

Insacred silence hung. 

Now on the weeping willow's boughs 

Its strings all loose and broken, 
His lyre is hung — the lone wind blows 
Its wail among them — and the vows 

Of boys and maids are spoken, 

Beneath their cool and hallowed shade, 

Where oft they loved to lie, 
Drinking the sounds those strings once made, 
ADd weaving wreaths, for him who played, 

Of immortalitv. 



92 LETTERS TO ADA. 

What, dear Ada, were the sentiments of this 
sweet bard and most amiable prelate of the 
episcopal church, concerning the subject which 
we are now considering ? Did he join the hoarse 
outcry of bigotry and prejudice? did he profane 
his lyre with a spirit of rancour on this subject? 

I refer you to his journal, as quoted in the Edin- 
burgh Review, number ninety-six. December, 1828. 

In concluding a letter to Miss How, who had 
recently lost a dear brother, he says: "And now 
farewell. God support, bless, and comfort you. 
Such as my prayers are you have them fervently 
and sincerely offered. But you have better and 
holier prayers than mine. That the spirits in 
paradise may pray for those whom they have left 
behind, I cannot doubt; since I cannot suppose 
that they cease to love us there: and your dear 
brother is stili empkrved in your service, and still 
recommending you to the throne of mercy." 

From this passage, it is plain, that Bishop 
Heber believed in the efficacy of the praj'ers of 
the spirits in paradise — can you doubt it, Ada, 
after all that I have brought forward in its vindi- 
cation? Can any consistent protestant, who 
venerates the opinions of his most enlightened 
prelates and writers, who respects the testimony 
of the fathers, and the unanimous practice of all 
past ages, and who regards the convictions of the 



LETTERS TO ADA. 93 

majority of christians at the present day. I ask 
you, Ada, can any candid protestant condemn 
me, and accuse me of superstition, for praying to 
the saints — Pensez-y-bien, my dear Ada. 

Oh ! myriads of celestial beings, deeply interest- 
ed in your welfare, and who long to have you as 
a companion in their society for all eternity, are 
pouring forth their prayers for you — Blend your's 
with their's, dearest lady, and while 3 T ou breathe 
out your fervent aspirations, pray, pray for me. 
— Adieu. 



LETTER XXIY. 

The scenery around me is calm and beautiful, 
Ada. 'Tis the sweet hour of twilight, when the 
delightful interval between day and night gives 
respite to the wearied bosom, and quiet to the 
agitated heart. I am sitting on the portico of an 

ancient mansion, on the banks of the . Tufts 

of trees, half lost in dusk, lift their boughs in thick 
confusion, through which, ever and anon, a vista 
opens upon the clear stream, tinged with the 
sunken rays of the gone sun. The big black 
watch-dog is fawning at the feet of his master, 
keeping fixed upon him his large fine eye, and al- 



94 LETTERS TO ADA. 

most intelligent of what is going on. The melo- 
dious notes of the mocking bird are swelling from 
the strained throat of the caged warbler, and 
mingling with the soft whisperings of the sportive 
zephyr. 

Around the white pilasters twines the wood- 
bine, clustering with the sweet-briar and the 
wild-rose; fragrance is sweetening the atmosphere 
— my cousin is listening to the reading of her love- 
ly little Maria Louisa — and Theodore is watching 
the bounding colt. 

Seated in a corner, with just light enough from 
the reflected sun beams, to see by, Ada is not for- 
gotten. Were she here, we could converse at leisure 
on the subject which now occupies all my thoughts* 
and on which I snatch the present moment to 
write again. ) 

Scarcely had I commenced, than my cousin, 
interrupting her daughter's lesson, cried out to me, 
as she drew an image from her work-basket : _ " I 
forgot to show you this picture, cousin. w 

" Whom does it represent V 1 I asked. 

She fixed her eyes, suffused with tears, upon it 
— " my dear mother V she faltered with a voice 
half-stifled with sobs ; and kissed it. 

I looked at it — returned it — she resumed her 
amiable occupation, and I was left again to my 
musings. 



LETTERS TO ADA. 95 

I thought how strange it is, that veneration is 
allowed by a natural impulse, to images and relics 
of our friends, and yet, condemned in the catholic 
who refers it to sacied things, as superstitious. 
Modern polemics inveigh, with no little acrimony 
against this tenet, and yet it is a fact not known 
to many, that Luther did not separate from the 
ancient church, on this adopted ground. Nor did 
his immediate disciples, and intimate friends, object 
to the respect which we pay to the crucifix, since 
Melancihon, in the frontispiece of the editions of 
the Reformer's works, represents him kneeling in 
prayer before that instrument of redemption. 

Nor did the primitive heads of the church of 
England object to this dogma. You have read in 
Dr. Milnor's works, dear Ada, that James the 
first reproached the Scottish bishops with the fact, 
that they placed in the churches the royal lions 
and Queen Elizabeth's devils (griffins) and re- 
fused to admit the statues of the apostles and 
martyrs. How will the Rev. Dr. — of the little 
church answer the king's strong argument ? Do 
you think he will attempt to do so, Ada ? I cer- 
tainly cannot be accused of illiberaiity when I 
bring protestant against protestant — yoic surely will 
acquit me of any intention of uttering a syllable 
that might be offensive to thousands, who though 
not within the communion of my church, are sua* 



96 LETTERS TO ADA. 

cere in their convictions, and disposed to embrace 
the truth, if they discover it, at any peril, ^ou are 
among these, dear Ada — God bless you, and direct 
you. — Adieu. 



LETTER XXV. 

'Tis said, my Ada, that before 

His wooden God the papist bows : 

And muttering his senseless vows 

He loves some image to adore : 

M Blinded idolator !" exclaims 

Some voice oracular and deep ! 

Old men groan forth — old women weep, — 
We laugh at such nick names. 

" Papists," "Romanists," and similar misnomers, 
seem now, to be the titles by which the conscien- 
tious member of the ancient church is designated. 
Pitiful invention ! In England, in former times of 
intolerance, this artifice might have produced its 
effect — but in a free country, and an enlightened 
and liberal age, it is unmeaning and contemptible. 

The nature of the tenet of our church regard- 
ing sacred images and relics has been as disinge- 
nuously misrepresented, as the members of that 
church are miscalled. Authors of high repute 



LETTERS TO ADA. 97 

and respectable authority on other subjects, appear 
as ignorant on this as the most insignificant scrib- 
bler of the nge. 

It is stated, dear Ada, that we pray to images ; 
and adore the cross — that we believe there exists 
a divine efficacy in relics, by which, forgetting the 
Almighty giver of every good gift, we hope to de- 
rive from them blessings and graces. Have you not 
frequently found this assertion made with all the 
gravity of truth, in the course of your reading? 
Yes, from archbishop Seeker in England down to 
the obscure " Watchman" in the United States, 
this silly assertion is transmitted, and continued— 
until at length it has almost become a proverb in 
the world. 

You know how to treat such aspersions, Ada, on 
the good sense and religious understanding of so 
many excellent and virtuous catholics. You smile 
with pity when you hear it said that your elegant 

friends, the amiable,* the accomplished Misses 

are bound to transfer, as catholics, their adoration 
from the great Creator, to a stock, or a stone — to a 
crucifix or a picture. 

What, then, is the true doctrine of the church, 
on this point ? We find it in the Council of Trent, 
session the twenty -fifth — 

" The images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of 
God, and the other saints, are to be kept and le- 

I 



98 LETTERS TO ADA. 

tained particularly in the churches, and due ho- 
nour and veneration to be paid them : not that we 
believe in any divinity or power in them, for which 
we respect them, or that any thing is to be asked of 
them ; or that trust is to be placed in them, as the 
heathens trusted of old in their idols." 

Consult the catechism in use throughout this 
country ; and to the question, " Are we allowed to 
pray to crucifixes, relics, and hoK pictures? 1 ' you 
will discover this answer : u No, by no means ; 
for they have no life, or sense, to hear or help us." 

It is false, therefore, that we adore these memo- 
rials : it is true that we offer them a species of 
veneration. We have to examine, what is the 
character of the veneration which tha church ad- 
mits, and the catholic pays to them. 

After going into the investigation, I feel assured, 
that there is one candid, sincere, and ingenuous 
enough to condemn, with heartfelt emotion, the 
strange, but strong exertions that are now made, 
in the most enlightened of all countries, lo keep up 
the wild cry of idolatry, Romanism, Popery ! 
That one, is Ada. — 

Adieu. 



99 



LETTER XXVI 



I ask then, Ada, what is the character of the 
veneration which we pay to relics and images ? 

Let the church of Smyrna, in their letter to their 
brethren in Pontus, as recorded by Eusebius, an- 
swer the question: 

iC Our subtle enemy, the devil, did his utmost 
that we should not take away the body (of Poly- 
carp), as many of us anxiously wished. It was 
suggested that we should deny our crucified Master, 
and begin to worship Polycarp. Foolish men, 
who knew not that we never can desert Christ, who 
died for the salvation of all men ! nor worship 
any other. Him we adore as the Son of God, but 
we show deserved respect to the martyrs, and his 
disciples and followers. The centurion therefore 
caused the body to be burnt. We then gathered 
his bones, more precious than pearls and more 
tried than gold, and buried them. In this place, 
God willing, we will meet, and celebrate with joy 
and gladness, the birthday of this martyr, as well 
as the memory of those who have been crowned 
before, as by his example, to prepare and strength- 
en others for the combat ! n This passage is taken 
from the fourth book, fifteenth chapter, of Euse- 
bius' Ecclesiastical History. 

The faith of the present age, dear Ada, is here 



100 LETTERS TO ADA. 

defined in the clearest terms, by the christians of 
the second century. They were, at that early pe- 
riod, accused of adoring the relics of the mar- 
tyrs; the same accusation is laid to us; tut 
we reply, in the triumphant language of those 
enlightened christians : " Foolish men 1 we never 
can desert Christ — nor worship any other." 

Whatever veneration, therefore, we give to relics 
and images, is merely relative; referred to the per- 
son represented, or of whom any memorial re- 
mains ; and that veneration is entirely of an infe- 
rior character — similar to that which my amiable 
cousin paid to the image of her departed mother. 

I contend, my dear Ada, that this veneration is 
proper ; is rational ; is founded upon scripture. 
Turn to the thirty-seventh chapter of the book of 
Exodus, and you will find there a description of 
the ark, before which Joshua prostrated himself to 
the ground. 

" And Bezaleel made the ark of sittim wood; 

two cubits and a half was the length of it and 

he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, 
and made a crown of gold to it round about.... 

"And he made two cherubims of gold, beaten out 
of one piece made he them, on the two ends of the 
mercy seat, one cherub on one end of the side, and 
another cherub on the other end.".... 

Now, Ada, I request you to pay peculiar attention 
to the images of the cherubim, formed upon the 
ark ; and then turn to the book of Joshua, seventh 



LETTERS TO ADA. 101 

chapter and sixth verse, and see how that prophet, 
who understood the nature of idolatry better than 
those who now object to paying respect to images 
and relics, observe, I entreat you, how that holy 
man bowed before the cherubim of the ark : 

"And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the 
earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord un- 
til even tide ; he and the elders of Israel; and put 
dust upon their heads." 

I presume no one will accuse Joshua and the el- 
ders, of having fallen into idolatry because they 
prostrated themselves before the ark. Upon what 
principle, then, are we condemned for bowing be- 
fore a crucifix, or a sacred memorial, in the same 
spirit, and with the same motives which influenced 
that venerable man ! 

How often have I not heard some of your inti- 
mate friends regret that catholics could so far for- 
get the adoration due to the Supreme Lord, as to 
prostrate themselves before a crucifix, and j-et the 
precedent which 1 have just adduced, to authorize 
o \t practice, exists, recorded and approved, in the 
ancient testament ! 

By venerating the crucifix, which brings so vi- 
vidly to my mind the sufferings of him who redeem- 
ed us, I do no more than protestants themselves, 
when they venerate the bread and wine, the sym- 
bols of the body and blood of Christ. There is no 
one, I believe, who approaches the communion ta- 

I 2 



109 LETTERS TO ADA. 

ble, but feels and evinces, a high veneration for the 
elements containing the memorial of his passion, 
who is represented under them. 

Why then, may the catholic not exhibit a pro- 
per and decent veneration for the crucifix, or an 
image representing him still more perfectly? 

It is prescribed that, at the pronunciation of the 
name of Jesus, every knee shall bend ; according- 
ly, at the sound of that venerable name, I have no- 
ticed, with no little edification, that it is customary 
for the more devout among our protestant brethren, 
to bow their heads. 

If it be lawful and proper to bow before the mere 
name of the Redeemer, where can there be dis- 
covered any derogation from the eternal majesty 
to bow before the image of Christ. 

In London, dear Ada, you yourself remember, 
when you were introduced into the house of lords, 
how those noble personages, as they entered, bent 
their knees to the empty throne! It then occurred 
to you, as you stated in a very elegantly written 
letter, that these men at least, could with no con- 
sistency whatever, condemn the catholic for bow- 
ing before a picture or a relic ! 

The most violent fanatic against the veneration 
of images, does not hesitate to pay external respect, 
to the volume of the scriptures. He will treat it 
with religious decorum, he will kiss it with vene- 
ration. But this same person, when he sees me 
treating a sacred picture, or relic, or crucifix, with 



LETTERS TO ADA. "" 103 

precisely the saxne regard, affixing to them my 
lips, in testimony of a similar respect, this same 
person, Ada, will exclaim " superstition !" and 
■will affect to pity the lamentable delusion of poor 
u papists !" 

We ask not their pity, we call upon them to 
examine our tenets, and to act consistently, and 
fairly. Ada, farewell. 



LETTER XXVII. 

Whenever I entered the house of delegates in my 
own native city, Annapolis, I felt a reverential 
emotion at the reflection, that in that venerable 
hall, the father of our country once appeared, and 
that there he resigned his office of President, in 
order to retire to the tranquil enjoyments of his 
ancestral farm. And that sentiment was very 
much enhanced, dear Ada, when I cast up my 
eye to an ancient likeness of Washington, which 
hangs in the hall. 

Who could look upon the image of that immor- 
tal patriot, and would not experience a sentiment 
of profound respect for the original, and veneration 
for the picture of so illustrious a man ! The con- 
templation of such an image excites a thrilling 
feeling in the bosom ; awakens a deep desire to 
imitate the example of the original, and kindles a 



104 LETTERS TO ADA. 

glow of admiration for his virtues. An American 
youth, whose heart would not throb with the love 
of country, when his father points to the likeness 
of Washington, cannot be worthy of the liberties 
which were won for him. 

If scepticism itself, dear Ada, would shrink from 
the condemnation of such respect towards the 
image of a hero and a sage, may I not be allowed 
the privilege, or rather may I not claim the right, 
to venerate ihe image of my Saviour, or of a saint; 
may I not hang up such a representation in the 
churches, that the faith of the christian may be 
excited, his gratitude roused ; his hopes invigorat- 
ed; and his devotion increased ! 

Certainly, Ada, if the likeness of a patriot urges 
the heart of him who contemplates it, to a pure love 
of country, and the desire to emulate the civic vir- 
tues which distinguished the original, the contem- 
plation of the likeness of the founder of our reli- 
gion must excite us to the love of our heavenly 
country, must stimulate us to the practice of su- 
pernatural virtues. Is not this a plain and na- 
tural deduction, Ada! Can you discover any in- 
consistency in the argument, any flaw in the con- 
clusion ? 

But * tis objected, that the hand profane 

Of mortal artist dares to represent 
On canvass what the loftiest mind in vain 

Seeks to conceive — and what was never meant 



LETTERS TO ADA. 105 

To be depicted to the human eye : 

And what is this ? — that as an aged man, 
The papist represents the eternal Deity ! 

Yes, Ada, this seems, in an especial manner, to 
scandalize the more devotional, and contemplative 
portion of our opponents; and yet, the catholic 
does what he is justified in doing : he describes 
on canvass, what the inspired penman describes 
in writing. He conveys to the eye, what the di- 
vine author traces to the mind. 

If the Eternal ever deigned to appear as an 
aged man ; if he is described as such, by the au- 
thor of a book which all denominations admit to 
be canonical, I contend, that there is no possible 
ground of complaint against the catholic for re- 
presenting Him, in that character, on canvass. 

Turn, dear Ada, to the seventh chapter of 
Daniel, verse the ninth, and j^ou will read this 
sentence : 

" I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and 
the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was 
white as snow, and the hair of his head Hke the 
pure wool" 

Can there be any impropriety in tracing out 
this idea, presented by the author of the book 
whence I quote the passage, in a painting, or in 
sculpture. If the hair of the Ancient of days, is 
represented to my mind's eye as " like the pure 
wool,'' why cannot that hair be thus represented 
to my sight, by the pencil of the artist ! 



1C6 LETTERS TO ADA. 

I am at a loss to perceive the slightest reasonable 
imparity in the case — Revolve the subject serious- 
ly in your own mind, dear Ada, and then tell me, 
can you see any foundation for the objection I 
have answered. Adieu. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

Would you believe, dear Ada, that so intelligent 

a young lady as Laurentia would seriously 

ask the question, if the catholic church does not 
suppress the second commandment ? Has she ever 
looked into our common catechism ? Has she 
read our editions of the bible ! If she would take 
the trouble to convince herself by referring to those 
books, she would find that we inculcate, with as 
much emphasis and zeal as she can desire, the 
commandment: 

" Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven 
thing, or the likeness of any thing that is in 
heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the 
waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore 
them, or serve them." 

Is this suppressing the commandment in ques- 
tion, Ada, or can it be urged that we violate it, by 
having sacred pictures, statues, crucifixes, &c. ? 
By no means ; the force of the injunction does not 
lie in the terms : " thou shalt not make to thyself 



LETTERS TO ADA. 107 

the likeness of any thing; otherwise the painter 
would be subjected to the continual violation of it; 
for if we be solemnly forbidden to make the like- 
ness of any thing, then it would be wrong to have 
the image of a parent, friend, or relation. 

The meaning then, of the first part of the com- 
mandment, is modified and must be understood, 
by the conclusion : a thou shait not adore them, 
or serve them." 

Now, as Laurentia does not adore or serve 

the beautiful picture of her aunt which is display- 
ed in her parlour, so I do not adore or serve the 
image of a saint or of the Virgin Mary, which is 
presented to my observation in the churches. 

It may not be irrelevant to remark here, Ada, 
that it is not to the crucifix, or any painting that 
may hang over the altar, that we bend our knees on 
entering the church ; j'ou are aware, that we 
believe there is something in our tabernacles in- 
finitely more deserving of our veneration. Con- 
vinced of the real presence of Christ in the eucha- 
rist, we adore him — and certainly he is entitled to 
our adoration, whether he appears arrayed in the 
majesty of Thabor, or is hidden in the obscurity of 
the elements of the bread. 

On this subject, I shall write hereafter — and in- 
credible as the fact may seem to thousands, I am 
much mistaken if I cannot adduce the most solid 
arguments to support its truth. 



108 LETTERS TO ADA. 

For the present, I wish to convey a clear idea of 
the subject now under investigation. And I p~ay 
you, Ada, when next you meet your dear Lauren- 
tia, to assure her for me, that the second command- 
ment remains untouched, and inviolable, in the 
catholic community. Adieu. 



LETTER XXIX. 

" There is something exceedingly disgusting, to 
say nothing of the absurdity of the practice, in 
kneeling down to the bones of dead men." 

This is a sentence extracted from an essay 
written by a gentleman, whom the public esteem 
as a liberal and honourable scholar — the writer 
alludes, dear Ada, to a subject, concerning which 
he manifestly entertains but a confused and incor- 
rect idea. He means to state, in other words, that 
the doctrine of the catholic church concerning the 
veneration of relics, is disgusting and absurd. 

What is a relic ? < 

Thou knowest, Ada — for thy mind 

With graceful learning is refined : 
It means a token left 

By some dear friend, or saint, or sage, 
Some patriot, hero, of his age, 

Of whom the world is reft* 



LETTERS TO ADA. 109 

A lock of thy dark flowing hair 
When thou art mingling with the blest, 

Bequeathed to him thou lovest here, 
Will be a relic, sacred to his breast. 

The sword, which in the battle-hour 

The father of his country wore, 
Fighting for liberty, 

Is now — when he is laid in dust, 
Beheld with veneration just 

By all the good and free. 
It is a relic, on the shrine 

Of patriotism, with sacred car: 
Pieserved — and Freedom's flame divine 

Burns in their breasts who to that shrine repair, 

Then, when before the martyr's tomb 

Within the ancient walls of Rome, 
With reverence a kneel ; 

Say, who can blame, my Ada fair, 
Knowing whose bones are resting there, 

The sentiments I feel ! 
For there the hallowed relics lie 

Of the brave champions of our cause i 
Heroes of Christianity — * 

Defenders of religion, and her laws ! 

Perhaps there are many, in this wise age, who 
would smile, were they to be told, that I would 
venerate the handkerchief of St. Paul, were it 
possible to procure it. — But they should suspend 
their mirth, dear Ada, until they turn to the nine- 
teenth chapter and twelfth verse of the Acts of the 
Apostles. What will they find there recorded 1 

K 



110 LETTERS TO ADA. 

Why, strange it is, they will find that the hand- 
kerchief of Paul, seemed to possess a miraculous 
virtue — certainly wonders were wrought by it — 
" And God wrought special miracles by the hands 
of Paul/' writes the author of the Acts. 

"So that (I quote the protestant translation) 
from his body were brought, unto the sick hand- 
kerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed 
from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." 

Now, if these identic handkerchiefs and aprons 
could be exposed to public view in our churches, 
would they not claim a certain species of venera- 
tion from every christian ? would not every believer 
feel it a pleasure and honour, to be allowed to 
touch them? and if he could obtain a particle of 
them, would he not delight in preserving tfce 
relic, of which such extraordinary powers are 
recorded in the scripture ? 

But as the essayist whom J quoted in the be- 
ginning of this letter, lays peculiar stress upon 
venerating the bones of the dead, I would advise 
him to peruse with, attention, the thirteenth chap- 
ter, and twenty-fi/st verse of the fourth book of 
Kings. He will read there of the prodigious effiacy 
attached to the relics — the bones- — of the prophet 
Eliseus ; that they, by their merely coming in con- 
tact with a dead body, effected the resuscitation to 
life of the deceased person thrown upon them. 

" And it came to pass" (again I cite the pro- 



LETTERS TO ADA. Ill 

testant version second Kings, chap. 13. v. 21) " as 
they were burying a man, that behold, they spied 
a band of men : and they cast the man into the 
sepulchre of Elisha : and when the man was let 
down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, 
and stood upon his feet." 

I do not think there would have been any thing 
very disgusting or absurd, if the man, restored to 
life so miraculously by the relics of Elisha, had, in 
the fervour of his gratitude, knelt down to thank 
his God, for having conferred upon htm so signal a 
favour, through the instrumentality of the bones of 
the deceased prophet — and oh ! could he be deem- 
ed superstitious, had he procured a fragment of 
those relics, enshrined it in gold or silver, kept it by 
him, with due veneration, and exhibited to his 
friends, as the instrument under providence, of his 
restoration to life? How would you have acted in 
such a case, dear Ada ? Reflect upon this, and. 

Adieu, 



113 
LETTER XXX. 

I love to go back, dear Ada, to long-past ages, to 
consult the wisdom of antiquity, on the subjects 
which we are discussing. There is a voice speak- 
ing from the tombs — there is an echo sounding 
from the vaults of the dead. When I question 
that voice, when I ask, was it customary in times 
that have gone, to venerate relics, I am answered 
by a deep burst of testimony ; it was ! — and echo 
says — u was." 

As I sit on the willow-shaded banks of a broad 
stream, over which the matin-zephyr is sporting, as 
he dips his aerial wings in the gently rippling 
waves — I love to consult the venerable and wise, 
who no longer exist save in their immortal works. 

I turn over the far-famed pages of EusebiuSj 
who is styled the father of ecclesiastical historj', 
and I discover among his writings the following 
testimony : 

"It is our practice to honour their (the martyrs) 
sepulchres, there to utter our prayers and our 
vows, and to venerate their blessed souls: and 
this we say is justly done." 

Next I consult Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, and, 
in his eighteenth Catechesis on the Resurrection, 
he addresses me thus: 

" From the fact of a dead man being raised to 



LETTERS TO ADA. 113 

life by touching the body of Eliseus, we learn, that 
when the soul is departed, a certain virtue remains 
in the bodies of saints, and thar, on account of the 
merit of the souls that resided in them. Of this we 
cannot doubt, for if the handkerchiefs and aprons, 
mere external appendages, cured the sick that 
touched them ; more efficacious, we conclude, 
would be the body of a prophet." 

Saint Cyril, in his first discourse against Julian 
the apostate, condemns him for not respecting the 
relics of the saints : 

" How is it," he says, "that thou payest no re- 
spect to those, who are honoured with festivals, 
and by whom devils have been expelled, and 
infirmities cured." 

Saint Ambrose, in his eighty-fifth epistle on 
St. Gervase and Protase, expresses himself thus: 

" Let these triumphant victims be lodged in the 
place, where Jesus Christ is our host: upon the 
altar, Him who has suffered for all: under the 
altar, them who have been redeemed by his death. 
I had intended this place for myself: for it is just 
that the priest should repose where the priest has 
so often offered sacrifice. But I yield my right to 
these sacred victims; it is due to martyrs." 

Hear the eloquent saint Augustin, Ada, in his 
forty-second epistle: 

11 You see the illustrious chief of the greatest 
K2 



114 LETTERS TO ADA. 

of empires, appear as a suppliant at the tomb of 
the fisherman, and the head that bears the diadem 
humbly bowing before the remains of Peter." 

And the sublime appeal of Saint Chrysostom in 
his thirty-second Homily on the Epistle to the 
Romans. 

"For myself, I admire Rome and celebrate it, 
not for the splendour and abundance of its wealth, 
not for its magnificent edifices, but for those two 
columns of the church which it possesses. Oh ! 
who will give me to embrace the body of Paul.... 
to cling to his sepulchre, to contemplate even 
the dust of his body.. ..the dust, I saj T , of that 
mouth, by which Jesus Christ has spoken to us, 
and from which came forth a light more resplen- 
dent than the sun — yes I could wish to see the 
tomb which encloses those weapons of justice, 
and truth... This body with that of Peter, shall 
alwaj's be for Rome, a more secure defence than 
walls or towers." 

" I honour, in the body of a martyr," exclaims 
St. Ambrose, " the scars received for the name of 
Christ. 1 honour the memory of him, who lives 
eternally by his virtue. I honour the ashes be- 
come sacred by confessing the Lord. I honour 
in these ashes the seeds of immortality." 

Can you then refuse, dear Ada, to join with so 
illustrious a man, in honouring the remains of the 



LETTERS TO ADA, 115 

martyrs, the relics of the saints? I do not ask 
you to pay blind veneration to every thing offered 
you as a relic; the object must be authenticated, 
proved,— and such an object, such a relic, you 
would not refuse, with St. Ambrose, to honour in 
the proper acceptation of the term — Would you, 
Ada? Adieu. 



LETTER XXXI. 

I have often been asked, what is the meaning of 
having* so manj 7 lighted candles upon our altars! 
One of your most lovely friends, Ada, once remark- 
ed, that our altar reminded her of a baby-house. I 
am far from willing to defend the manner in which 
every catholic altar is adorned — but I can learn 
from the most authentic authority, that our chris- 
tian forefathers were accustomed to burn a num- 
ber of candles, and place very gorgeous ornaments 
upon the altars, near which were deposited the 
remains of the martyrs — I will cite a few lines of 
tolerably good latin poetry, by Saint Paulinus, 
descriptive of the shrine in which were laid the 
bones of Saint Felix. 

" Aurea nunc niveis orbantur limina velis : 
Clara coronantur densis altaria lychris, 
Limina ceratis adolentur odora papyris. 



J 16 LETTERS TO ADA. 

Nocte dieque micant: sic nox splendorque diei 

Fulget, et ipsa dies coeleste illustiis honre 

Plus micat, innumeiis lucem geminata lucernis." 

You have studied some Latin, dear Ada, and 
with the aid of jour dictionary, I have no doubt 
but j^ou can make out the meaning. I will, how* 
ever, attempt to translate them : 

The snow-white curtain, from the golden shrine 

Is now removed ; upon the altar shine 

Lamps thickly placed — and waxen tapers throw 

Their mingled lights upon the shrine below, 

There day and night they shed their glimmering ray, 

Chasing the gloomy shades of night away, 

And rendering still more bright the light of day. 

Among the presents which the emperor Constan- 
tine made to the- shrines of Saint Peter and Saint 
Paul, were gorgeous candlesticks, splendid lamps, 
and perpetual lights to burn before the relics. 

When the remains of Saint Chrysostom were 
translated, they were carried in great pomp, pre- 
ceded by innumerable lights. This fact is re- 
corded by Theocloret. 

It is extraordinary to hear objections raised 
against the propriety of venerating sacred relics, 
dear Ada, by those very persons whose classic 
enthusiasm glows before a fragment of Roman 
or Grecian antiquity. I have seen the sternest 
sceptics weep before the statue of a pagan lady, 
holding in her hands the urn containing the ashes 



LETTERS TO ADA, 



117 



of him she loved. I have seen the most unbend- 
ing enemies of our creed, musing, in deep venera- 
tion, among the tcmbs of Pompeii; touching with 
profound respect, the very marble, and entering 
with a hallowed sentiment, the ruinous temples of 
the gods. 

May I not then be allowed, dear Ada, to kneel with 
religions respect before the tombs of the martyrs — 
to enter with sacred awe the dark chambers-of the 
catecombs — to venerate the relics of the champions 
— the heroes — the sages, of Christianity ! I leave it 
to your candour to answer the question — I know 
what will be your reply. It is not only allowablej 
it is meet. Adieu. 



LETTER XXXII. 

You ask, dear Ada, whether any protestant 
authority can be cited, in support of the veneration 
of sacred images ? Yes, my fair friend, and 
authority too of the most respectable character. 
Take for instance Molanus, the oracle of Luther- 
anism, in the last century, he writes thus: 

"It is very certain that there is no virtue in 
images, and therefore that we cannot adore them 
nor pray before them, but in as much as they are 



118 LETTERS TO ADA. 

a visible means of exciting in us the remembrance 
of Christ and heavenly things. And if we would 
adore or invoke God before an image, we must 
put ourselves in the same disposition in which 
the Israelites were before the brazen serpent, be- 
holding it with respect, but placing their faith not 
in the serpent but in God." 

I agree, in every word, with the learned and 
candid writer. His sentiments, on this subject, 
are precisely mine ; and those of every catholic. 
Are they not yours, dear Ada ? 

Among the ornaments of the episcopal church, 
no one will deny an exalied place to the illustrious 
Dr. Montague. And that immortal prelate de- 
clares in his " Appeal," chapter the twenty-first 
that sacred images have the virtue of producing 
emotions of piety, and awakening feelings of re- 
ligion and devotion. 

" The pictures of Christ," that I may cite his 
own words, " the blessed Virgin, and saints, may 
be made, had in houses, set up in churches. The 
protestants use them : they despise them not. 
Respect and honour may be given to them: the 
protestants do it, and use them for helps of piety, 
in rememoration, and more effectual representation, 
of the Prototype." 

What, after this explicit acknowledgement, are 
we to think of those ungenerous writers of the 
present day, who represent it as idolatrous to have 



LETTERS TO ADA. 119 

and pay honour to religious memorials ? Whose 
authority would have more weight with a think- 
ing mind, no matter how prejudiced — that of a 
modern opponent to our creed, or that of the ve- 
nerable Bishop of Chester. 

Again, in the contents, he lays down this propo- 
sition : 

" That images may affect the minds of religious 
men, by representing unto them the actions of 
Christ and his saints : in which regard, all 
reverence simply cannot be abstracted from them." 

Is not this quite plain, quite satisfactory ! 

But there is still higher authority, dear Ada; 
higher, not on account of greater learning, but of 
a more elevated rank, in the church of England 
— the authority of archbishop Laud. In a speech, 
delivered in the star-chamber, on the fourteenth of 
June, 1637, he thus addresses the Lords of the 
Garter : 

" I hope a poor priest may worship God with 
as lowly reverence, as you do, since you are bound 
by your oath and your order, according to a cons- 
titution of Henry V., to give due honour to the 
Lord your God, and to his altar] (for there is 
reverence due to that, too, though such as comes 
far short of divine worship) and this in the manner 
as ecclesiastical persons both worship and do him 
reverence." 



120 LETTERS TO ADA. 

According to this arch-prelate 5 then, my dear 
Ada, there is respect due to the very altar: if the 
altar deserves respect, certainly the image of 
Christ demands the same ; a relic is entitled to as 
much, and consequently the controversy regarding 
this tenet which has grown so noisy, and so 
clamorous, as almost to drown the voice of vindi- 
cation and truth, should, in the estimation of every 
unprejudiced understanding, be brought to a con- 
clusion ; all should agree, since I have quoted ihe 
authority of scripture, of the fathers, of the custom 
of antiquity, of the very protectants themselves^ 
that to venerate images and relics, in a proper 
manner, is not only an excusable, but a praise- 
worthy and religious custom. 

As for yourself, & ear Ada, I am certain you will 
acquiesce in this conclusion. Truth has no ob- 
stacle to encounter in you : its rays, like those of 
an unclouded sun, will shine upon your con- 
victions and irradiate your heart. Adieu* 



121 



LETTER XXXIII. 

At the foot of Mount Cenis, dear Ada, there 
stands a small rustic shrine, in honour of the 
Virgin Mary; a rude statue of the mother of the 
Redeemer, bearing her Son in her arms, salutes 
the stranger's eye, as he turns an abrupt ascent to 
the snowy mount. It seems to admonish the 
traveller, that the way is perilous and dreary; 
that there are snows everlasting piled upon the 
summits of Cenis, and the avalanches may fall ! 

As we turned the circuitous route, immediately 
as the shrine came in view, I observed the VeturinOj 
rough and half ferocious though he seemed, mak- 
ing upon his forehead the sign of the cross. 

" Did you observe the superstition of that 
Italian?" said an English traveller to me, "he 
crosses himself, to arm him, I suppose, against 
the dangers that await us : poor creature !" 

" Perhaps," I replied, " the honest, though un- 
couth driver, acts from a much more laudable 
principle, than you are aware of." 

" Principle!" exclaimed he, "the fool is blinded 
with the darkest, deepest shades of ignorance and 
stupid superstition." 

Perceiving, from the tenor of his language, that 
it would be useless to reason with him, I said no 
more: but I thought, much. I looked upon the 

L 



122 LETTERS TO ADA. 

simple act of the Veturino, as sublime, and emi- 
nently religious: and I will give you, dear Ada, 
my reasons for entertaining this conviction. 

In recurring to the works of the most ancient 
fathers, I find that it was a custom universal 
among the early christians, to sign themselves 
with the cross. And, I conclude therefore, that 
it is a religious, not a superstitious practice, ob- 
served at this day, by the catholic church. 

" If a catechumen is asked," writes Si. Angus- 
tin, in his Second Treatise on St. John — "do you 
believe in Christ? He replies yes; and instantly 
makes the sign of the cross. He describes it, and 
carries it on his forehead, and is not ashamed." 

u Keep the door of your heart shut," thus ad- 
vises St. Jerome, in his epistle to Demetrius — - 
"frequently make on your forehead the sign of 
the cross, that the exterminator of Egypt may 
have no hold upon you." 

" The sign of the cross," says St. Ambrose, "is 
on our foreheads, and in our hearts, on the fore- 
heads to confess him always, in our hearts to love 
him — we ought, on waking, to give thanks to 
Christ, and to begin the labours of the day with 
the sign of our Saviour." 

" Whenever we move," Tertullian observes in his 
Treatise on the Soldier's Crown, chapters third 
and fourth, " when we enter and go out : in 



LETTERS TO ADA. 123 

dressing : in washing : at table : when we retire 
to rest : during" conversation — we impress on our 
foreheads the sign of the cross !" 

Was not the Veturino authorised then, dear Ada, 
to make the sign of the cross, as he commenced 
his arduous journey up the fearful steep ! 

" Every where/ 7 exclaims the eloquent Chry- 
sostom, u the cross is displayed ; every where is 
it honoured. In the houses, in the public places, 
in the deserts, on the ways, on the mountains and 
hills, in the valleys, on the seas and vessels, on 
our habits, arms, vessels of gold and silver, on the 
paintings of our walls. We are far from being- 
ashamed of the cross." 

" Protect yourself," saj's saint Ephrem in his 
Treatise on the Spiritual Armour, w with the sign 
of the cross, as with a shield ; and this not only 
with your hand, but with your mind. Employ 
it in your studies, in going out, in returning home, 
when retiring to rest, and on rising in the morn- 
ing ; bless the places where you walk by this sign, 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son. and of 
the Holy Ghost." 

" Be not ashamed of the cross," Saint Cyril 
thus addresses his catechumens, "if any one 
conceal it, do you make it openly on your fore- 
head—eating, drinking, entering or leaving j^our 
houses, or retiring to rest, when rising up, make 
with confidence the sign of the cross upon your 
forehead." 



124 LETTERS TO ADA. 

"At the hour of prayer," says Saint Justin, 
(Question 118,) " we turn towards the east, and 
immediately with our right hand, we sign ourselves 
in the name of Christ, with the sign which is so 
necessary for us." 

Judge now, dear Ada, whether the Italian was 
as superstitious as the Englishman deemed him 
to he. Read over and over the passages I have 
cited from the primitive writers, and then see 
which of all the now existing churches has pre- 
served the venerable custom of making the sign 
of the cross. Adieu. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

From the journals of the day, I learn that the 
funeral ceremonies which engrossed the interest 
and attention of your capital, were grand and 
solemn. The tolling of bells, and beating of 
drums, and firing of cannons, were the awful he- 
ralds to the public of the departure from this scene 
of agitation, of the lamented Lafayette. 

The pageant's o'er, my Ada — still 
The deep tones of the solemn bell : 

The dirge is sung — the exciting thrill 
Of martial music hushed — the knell 



LETTERS TO ADA. 125 

Hath passed away upon the breeze ; 

The death-flag streaming on the seas 
Is furled — thus every light shall set — 
And sage and hero, follow Lafayette. — 

A great writer has remarked, dear Ada, that at 
the hour of death, he would rather be an obscure 
and pious peasant, than a distinguished and impi- 
ous philosopher. There is a fund of wisdom in 
the observation. The hero, whose death has just 
filled our whole continent with mourning, is less 
enviable in the last hour, than the unknown saint, 
who has lived in silence, and died in the arms of 
peace and religion. 

I am lead by this train of meditation, to the 
consideration of purgatory. I may be pitied for 
associating this unpopular topic, with the idea of 
the obsequies of a philosopher; but Ada, perhaps 
after we shall have examined the grounds on 
which this tenet is situated, you, at least, will ac- 
knowledge, that even purgatory is not without 
its philosophy. 

I am aware, that very popular wricers have re- 
presented this doctrine, as the inveniion of the 
priesthood, for mercenary ends : as a perpetual 
source of wealth, extorted from the superstitions 
and fears of the credulous ; and the most baseless 
and corrupt of all the errors of popery. — Suspend 
your judgment until you read my letters on the 
subject, Ada : meanwhile*— Adieu. 



126 



LETTER XXXV. 

Is it then true, as oft we hear, 
That there is nought, my Ada fair, 
More groundless, more unscriptural 
Than purgatory ; are we all 
Who candidly believe we find 
Authority of every kind 
Supporting — proving it, still lost 
In ignorance, from error tost 
To error, from one foaming surge 
Upon another 1 has the scourge 
Of angry heaven deprived our reason 
Of all its light — or is it treason 
To adhere to past and saintly ages — 
Or for ourselves to explain the pages 
Of holy writ ; (a right which they 
Who blame us most, will hardly say 
We are not like the rest of men 
Entitled to.) Why hear we then 
Such uproar, angry opposition 
When We defend this proposition : 
" There is a middle place" — we'll see 
If solid argument there be 
This tenet to substantiate 
Which has been so much scorned of late. 

Yes, we will enter upon this investigation, Ada, 
with the pure desire of ascertaining the character 
of the grounds on which it is based. We will 
convince ourselves of the truth or falsehood of the 
proposition, not by vituperating it, but by discuss, 
ing the topic. 



LETTERS TO ADA. 127 

Is there, then, any scriptural authority for the 
doctrine of purgatory, and praying for the dead : 
I assert that there is : — Turn to the second Book 
of Macchabees, chapter the twelfth, verses 43, 44, 
and 46, and you will read the following texts : 

11 And making a gathering he sent twelve thou- 
sand drachms of silver to Jerusalem, for sacrifice 
to be offered for the sins of the dead — for if he had 
not hoped that they that were slain should rise 
again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain 
to pray for the dead. It is therefore a holy and 
a wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that 
they may be loosed from sins." 

If these books form an integral part of the in- 
spired scriptures, then the controversy is for ever 
settled. For the language is as plain as it can 
possibly be : it is beyond the possibility of mis- 
construction or distortion. 

The question, therefore, is resolved, dear Ada, 
to this point: are the books of Macchabees a por- 
tion of the divine scriptures — or are they apochry- 
phal? 

I contend, that they are as divinely inspired, as 
any other portion of the ancient Testament ; or 
the Book of Genesis, or the Canticle of Canticles. 

Protestants reject them as uncanonical : how, 
then, are we to decide whether or not they be the 
word of God ? whether or not they be entitled to 
our veneration, as any other part of the scrip- 



128 LETTERS TO ADA. 

tures 1 Certainly not by appealing to modern 
criticism : for there are as many- — to say the least 
— as learned, and grave, and religious, who claim 
these books as divine, as there are who reject 
them. We must recur, dear Ada, to the authority 
of the ancients; and if we find that the primi- 
tive fathers of the church admitted them, we cer- 
tainly must not rashly assen that they are not 
authentic, that they are apochryphal. 

The third council of Carthage says : 

" These are the truths which our fathers taught 
us to read in the church, under the title of divine 
and canonical scriptures." 

St. Augustin, in his treatise on the doctrine of 
Christ, chapter the eighth, places these books in 
the canon of the scriptures, and quotes them in 
writing against the heretics of his times. 

They are ranked among the holy scriptures by 
Innocent I. in his reply to Exuperius, in 405 : and 
by Gelasius, book first, On the Care of the Dead, 
in 494. 

Of course I have sufficient authority on which 
to rest the authenticity of these books, and conse- 
quently no man has the least right to condemn 
me for believing the doctrine which they inculcate 
of praying for the dead. 

At any rate, the authority of the books of Mac* 
chabeesmust be great, even with those who bind 
them up in the same volume with the Holy Scrip- 



LETTERS TO ADA. 129 

tures. In alP'the ancient editions of the Bible 
these books are'to be found contained — merely en- 
tiled ajpochryphal : — that is to say not of divine 
authority. 

But, as a history, who will question their re- 
spectability, and veracity? Now, they testify, 
that it was customary for the Jews, at that time 
the people of God, to pray for the dead. That 
Judas Macchabeus, a most valiant man, an en- 
lightened follower of the customs of his religion 
and nation, was accustomed to pray for the dead ; 
that he sent money to the temple for the purpose 
of having sacrifices offered for the dead : That it 
is a good and wholesome thought to pray for 
the dead, and consequently, that it was a tenet 
inspired by the Almighty himself — and there* 
fore true ; for what was once true, must conti- 
nue true for ever ; truth is unchangeable, and, 
therefore, if in the days of Judas it was a whole- 
some practice to pray for the dead, it must be 
so now— and, it follows, that the church which 
teaches this truth is the true one. The catholic 
church alone teaches it : Ada, draw your conclu- 
sion. 

Josephus, in his " Wars of the Jews,' 1 chapter 
ninety-one, clearly indicates the ancient custom 
of his nation, when he states, that the Jews did not 
pray for those who had committed suicide. From 



130 LETTERS TO ADA. 

which we manifestly gather, that they prayed for 
those who did not. Let those who ridicule pur- 
gatory reflect on this, and, I am much mistaken, 
if they will not cease their pleasantry. — Adieu, 



LETTER XXXVI. 

It is a remarkable fact, dear Ada, that while our 
Saviour was in the habit of condemning the su- 
perstitions into which some of the Jews had fallen? 
we do notfind the most distant allusion to their cus- 
tom of praying for the dead. But if it was a cus* 
torn not authorised by the scriptures, he undoubt- 
edly would have expressed his disapprobation of 
it. And if the old adage " Silence gives consent" 
be true; it is certain that he consented to, and 
consequently approved of, the system which I am 
now defending. 

Nay, there can be alleged texts, from which 
this doctrine naturally flows: for instance, the 
thirty-second verse of the the twelfth chapter of 
Saint Matthew, our Saviour expressly says: 

u And whosoever speaketh against the Son 
of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but whosoever 
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
forgiven him neither in this world, nor in the 
world to come." 



LETTERS TO ADA. 131 

It follows, that, if that particular sin cannot be 
forgiven in this world or the world to come, other 
sins may be forgiven in the world to come. But 
there is no sin in heaven — and in hell there can 
be no forgiveness — consequently there must exist 
a middle place — a purgatory — I care not by what 
name it is designated — where sins may be for- 
given . 

Again, Saint Paul, who was divinely inspired, 
has left a text, in which this doctrine seems to be 
implied. Writing to the Corinthians, in his first 
epistle, chapter xv. verse 29, (I quote the protes- 
tant bible, ) he expresses himself thus : 

"Else what shall they do which are baptized 
for the dead, if the dead rise not at all !■ why are 
they then baptized for the dead ?" 

Although this text be very obscure in its general 
import, still it elucidates the fact, that some 
ceremonies were performed for the dead, in refer- 
ence to their happy resurrection : and, grounding 
my interpretation on the conjoint authority of the 
earliest fathers of the church, I have a right to 
deduce from it the doctrine of praying for the 
dead — of the existence of purgatory. 

That I may not make an assertion without 
substantiating it, I will bring forward some pas- 
sages from the primitive writers, in vindication 
of this point. 

Saint Cyprian, in his ninth epistle, writes thus: 



132 LETTERS TO ADA. 

"Our predecessors prudently advised that no 
brother, departing this life, should nominate any 
churchman his executor, and should he do it, that 
no oblation should be made for him: no sacrifice 
offered for his repose." 

Here is a specified case in which no sacrifice is 
to be offered : consequently in other cases, sacrifices 
might be offered for the repose of the departed. 

Saint Chrysostom assures us, that this tenet 
was ordained by the apostles themselves. To 
quote his own words: 

" It was ordained by the Apostles, that in cele- 
brating the Sacred Mysteries, the dead should be 
remembered ; for they well knew what advantage 
would be thence derived to them." This passage 
is taken from his sixty-ninth Homily to the people 
of Antioch, 

Saint Augustin, in his 172d Sermon, has left 
the following eloquent passage : 

" Funeral pomp, the crowds that follow, sump- 
tuous expenditure in the structure of mausoleums, 
without being of the smallest service to the dead, 
may afford some consolation to the living. But 
it cannot be doubted, that, by the prayers of the 
Holy Church, and by the salutary sacrifice, and 
by alms w T hich are given for the repose of their 
souls, the dead are helped, so that God may treat 
them more mercifully than their sins deserved. — 
This the whole Church observes, which it received 



LETTERS TO ADA, 133 

from the tradition of the fathers, to pray for those 
who died in the communion of the body and blood 
of Christ, when, in their turn, they are comme- 
morated at the sacrifice, and it is announced that 
the sacrifice is offered for them." 

Saint Isidore, in his book on divine offices, 
chapter fifteenth, writes thus : 

" Since the oblation of sacrifice and prayer for 
the repose of the departed are made in the church 
throughout the world, we believe that the apostles 
left us this custom. For the church every where 
observes it ; and it is certain, that if she did not 
believe that the faithful could obtain pardon for 
their sins, she would not give alms for the relief 
of their souls, and would not offer sacrifice to God 
for them." 

Thus does it appear incontrovertible, dear Ada, 
that this custom was universal throughout the 
church in the primitive ages, at a time when 
according to the admission of our very opponents, 
religion was incorrupt and pare. 

Am I, then, blinded by superstition, when I 
believe with the first christians ! when I offer 
sacrifices and oblations, as they did, for the repose 
of the departed 1 You will decide, my fair friend, 
and your own wisdom and candour will direct you 
in the result. Adieu. 

M 



134 
LETTER XXXVIL 

As I entered the cemetery near Bologna, dear 
Ada, called La Ctrtosa, which, for the beauty of 
its situation, and splendour of its monuments, 
hardly yields to the famous Pere la Chaise, I per- 
ceived kneeling at the side of a superb mausoleum, 
a pious monk, who had come down from the 
monastery perched upon the top of the mountain, 
to offer his prayers for the repose of the deceased, 
whose remains lay there interred. 

A stranger suddenly passed me, and taking me, 
from the language which he heard me speaking, 
to be an English protestant : "you perceive 
there," he said, pointing to the discalceate friar, 
"a specimen of the Romish church. That igno- 
rant being thinks that his prayers will avail the 
departed." With this, he was called away by 
his companion, who seemed in a hurry to enter a 
subterraneous cha'pel, which was opened by a lay- 
brother of the order of St. Bruno — and left me to 
my own reflections, as I fixed my eye attentively 
on the humble suppliant. 

Since I have commenced with you the calm 
investigation of these matters, I have often thought 
of the monk of the Certosa, and the remark of 
the stranger. I know not of what denomination 
the latter was, but certain I am, that the custom 



LETTERS TO ADA, 135 

which he identified with superstition, was con- 
sidered as religious, by the father of the reforma- 
tion, and some of the most learned writers of the 
protestant church. It is curious to mid Luther 
expressing- himself in the following terms : 

" As for me, who believe strongly, I might even 
venture to say more, who know that purgatory 
exists, I can readily be persuaded that it is men- 
tioned in the scriptures. All that I know of 
purgatory is, that souls are there in a state of 
suffering, and may be relieved by our works and 
prayers." 

Calvin himself, while he opposes the catholic 
church with unsparing satire, acknowledges that 
it was "more than thirteen hundred years since it 
became the custom to pray for the dead." (Institute 
book, 2. chap. 5.) 

Molanus affirmed, as Bossuet testifies, that one 
portion of the Lutherans not only approves, but 
practises this kind of prayer. This we find in 
the posthumous works of the Bishop of Meaux, 
vol. first, page 90, "and this is a remnant," ob- 
serves that immortal writer, "of those ancient 
sentiments which we honour in Lutheranism." 

From the testimony of the Lutherans, I pass, 
dear Ada, to that of some of the lights of the 
Church of England. " What !" perhaps you may 
exclaim r " is it possible that any one belonging to 
the protestant church, can have written in favour 



136 LETTERS TO ADA. 

of a dogma, which all modern protestants seem 
determined to reject T 

Yes Ada, it is a fact, which deserves to be for 
ever remembered. Bishop Forbes was a strong 
advocate of this doctrine. He has composed a dis- 
course on Purgatory, in which he has left the 
following passage : 

"Let not the ancient practice of praying and 
making oblations for the dead, received through- 
out the universal church of Christ, almost from 
the very time of the Apostles, be any more re- 
jected by protestants as unlawful or vain. Let 
them reverence the judgment of the primitive 
church, and admit a practice strengthened by the 
uninterrupted profession of so many ages: and let 
them, as well in public as in private, observe this 

rite, as lawful and likewise profitable, and 

as always approved by the universal church ; that, 
by this means, at length, a peace so earnestly de- 
sired by all learned and honest men, may be re- 
stored to the christian world." 

In another place he adds : 

" So we may maintain the prayers of the church 
for the souls departed, to be beneficial, and not in 
vain : inasmuch as that practice of the church, of 
praying for the dead, is derived, as Chrysostom 
confesses, and is very probable, from the institu- 
tion of the apostles." 

Is not this satisfactory, my dear Ada? and 



LETTERS TO ADA. 137 

when we hear other theologians of the same 
church, condemning this dogma, as false and anti- 
scriptural, Jet us not forget Bishop Forbes. 

There are others, who are not less explicit on 
this subject, whose authority I will cite in my 
next letter: meanwhile, reflect upon what I have 
adduced, and judge for j'ourself. Adieu. 



LETTER XXXVIII. 

With sacred awe, and solemn dread, 

I love to muse alone, 

To read the record on the stone, 
And hold communion with the dead. 
Oh! by the torch's glimmering light, 

My Ada, I remember well, 
I strayed, at Rouen, in the silent night, 

Through the vast aisles, from cell to cell, 
Where Rollo, and where William sleep, 
In sculptured mausoleums, dark and deep. 

Yes, there is to my taste, something most awful- 
ly interesting in the epitaphs recorded on the 
tombs of the departed. They seem their last legacy 
to the world — they are the eternal farewell to this 
transitory life, especially when those epitaphs 
were composed by the persons whose mortal re- 
mains lie buried under the stone. 

In the course of my reading, I have discovered 
M2 



138 LETTERS TO ADA. 

two epitaphs of great importance : both of which 
were written for their own tombstones, by two 
enlightened protestant divines of the highest stand- 
ing; and which bear testimony of their belief in 
the efficacy of prayer for the dead. 

EPITAPH OF BISHOP BARROW. 

" The remains of Isaac, Bishop of St. Asaph's, 
deposited in the hands of the Lord, in the hope of 
a joyful resurrection solely by the merits of Christ. 
O all ye that pass by into the house of the Lord, 
the house of prayer, pray for your fellow servant, 
that he a ay find mercy in the day of the Lord." 

Who, after perusing this, dear Ada, will doubt 
of the convictions of Isaac Barrow, on the subject 
in question ? He recommended his departed spirit 
t) i he prayers of all who should enter into the 
church in which he is buried. 

EPITAPH OF THORNDIKE. 

"Here lies the body of Herbert Thorndike, 
formerly a prebendary of this collegiate church, 
(Westminster,) who in his life time endeavoured 
by prayer and study, to discover the right method 
of reforming the church. Do thou, reader, im- 
plore for him rest and a happy resurrection in 
Christ." 



LETTERS TO ADA. 139 

Of course this eminent man was convinced that 
the prayers of the living- would contribute to the 
object for which he requested them, viz. to obtain 
rest for his soul, and a happy resurrection for his 
body. 

When, therefore, the catholic, seriously impress- 
ed with the sentiments recorded by the celebrated 
personages just cited, kneels in silent prayer be- 
fore the grave of a departed friend, and while the 
tear of sorrow drops from his ej'e, his heart heaves 
forth its deepest supplications, you, my dearest 
Ada, will not condemn him, you will rather com- 
mend hi in for his pious remembrance, and with 
him, sigh : " may the souls of the faithful departed, 
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.' ' Adieu. 



LETTER XXXIX. 

Saint Augustin was a firm believer in the doc- 
trine of purgatory. Ada, you have read in his 
confessions, the history of his conversion from 
manicheism to catholicity — and you have felt a 
lively sympathj r , when he records the prayers and 
tears of his mother, Saint Monica. After her death, 
he relates how, at the altar, he remembered the 
soul of her, who had brought him forth to the 
world, and to the truth. Consult his confessions, 
book the ninth, chapter thirteenth. 



140 LETTERS TO ADA. 

If we have to render an account for every idle 
word, where is the man, who can hope to be 
perfectly innocent, when he appears before the 
tribunal of God ? and yet this is an inspired fact: 
Saint Matthew distinctly states it, in his twelfth 
chapter, and sixth verse. 

An idle word, unrepented for, defiles the soul, 
and consequently excludes it from the regions of 
purity. It is not, however, so grievous as to con- 
demn its victim to eternal perdition; what then 
will become of the soul in such a condition? must 
it not be doomed, for a time, to a place of purga- 
tion, a middle state, in which it will remain until 
rendered worthy to be admitted into heaven. 

It is not essential to know what is the character 
of punishments to be endured in purgatory; nor is 
it of material importance, by what name that 
middle place may be designated. I contend for 
essentials merely, not for questions which cannot 
be determined. Whether the soul in a temporary 
separation from heaven, will suffer the torture of 
fire; or whether the punishment will consist merely 
of being deprived of the presence of Him, for whom 
it will pant with inextinguishable ardour, is not 
decided : we are free to believe either position. 
The existence of a middle place must be admitted ; 
indeed, Ada, after the arguments I have laid before 
you, it seems no longer controvertible. For, as 
you have seen, it is proved by Scripture ; by the 



LETTERS TO ADA. HI 

testimony of the earliest writers ; and by the ac- 
knowledgment of some of the ablest protestant 
Divines ; — What more can we require ? 

Then, Ada, when some bosom friend, 

By death is torn away ; 
Go, over his lonely ashes bend, 

And for his spirit pray : 
Yea, sigh thy fervent vows to heaven, 
That every venial stain may be forgiven. 

What, though the cold philosophy 

Of this most heartless earth, 
Would seek to hush the bursting sigh, 

Or turn it into mirth ; 
Religion will approve thy prayers, 
And consecrate thy monumental tears. 

Ada, adieu. 



LETTER XL. 

One of the most difficult points of the catholic 
religion, dearest Ada, is the subject of confession. 
For here commences the practical part, here begins 
the warfare against nature; the struggle against 
pride, the victory over one's self. — To believe in 
the speculative articles of the creed, demands only 
the conviction of the mind. To carry that belief 
into effect, requires a triumphant exertion of the 
whole man, and hence, since confession of sins is 



142 LETTERS TO ADA. 

so totally repugnant to the nature of our being, 
we find every effort made to deny its necessity, 
and even question its utility. 

To many, it would appear impossible thai this 
topic could be defended. By thousands it is con- 
sidered an invention of the dark ages, for the pur- 
pose of acquiring an unlimited influence on the 
part of the clergy over the people ; and more es- 
pecially yet, to procure money, from the deluded 
victims of their domination. 

If this were the case, confession, dear Ada, would 
indeed bean abomination: and far from attempting 
to vindicate it, I, as an honourable American, would 
be obliged to condemn it. But instead of being 
an invention of the dark ages, it is a divine institu- 
tion, descending from the days of the Apostles 
down to the era of our own existence. 

How often have you not read, in works of a 
very popular character, that the catholic may 
purchase absolution, that, no matter what sins he 
may be guilty of, he need only run to the priest, 
with a handful of monej', and he will immediate- 
ly obtain absolution. Nay, he will be encouraged 
to return to the same, and even more enormous, 
sins, with the hope that he will soon return, with 
a larger sum of money, to purchase a second abso- 
lution. 

1 remember you once brought me an extract 
from a book with a very plausible title, " The Taxes 



LETTERS TO ADA, 143 

of the Roman Chancery," in which a certain 
specified amount is attached to every kind of sin, 
for murder, so much, for stealing, so much — and 
so on, with the whole catalogue of abominations. 
This specious work is quoted by Guthrie in his 
Geography, and by almost every scribbler from 
his day down to a certain " Watchman" of the 
present period. 

You asked me whether this pretended work was 
authentic; and, you know well, dear Ada, what 
reply I made: you know, I asserted, and I did so 
not without the gravest authority, that this is a 
spurious composition — and that as often as it was 
republished in Germany and England, so often 
was it condemned at Rome. If therefore it has 
been scathed by the very lightnings of the Vati- 
can, it manifestly is of no authority — it is a triste 
bidental, — and it is imposing upon the ignorance 
of the people, to palm it upon the public, as an 
authentic register of penitential statistics ! 

The genuine doctrine of our church is this ; 
that the minister of penance, deriving his authority 
and power from God, can absolve the sinner, if 
he be truly penitent. But, if he have not the 
necessary dispositions — absolution would be of no 
avail — confession would be but a mockery. 

The priest is of his own nature, like every other 
man — frail, peccable, and helpless: but, he is in- 
vested by the Omnipotent with a delegated power, 



144 LETTERS TO ADA. 

which he can and must exercise. But that 
power will ever be ineffectual, if the person over 
whom he exerts it, be not properly disposed to profit 
by it. — For, it is manifest, that the priest cannot 
forgive one whom the Almighty himself cannot 
pardon: for the Almighty cannot pardon a sinner, 
who feels no sorrow for his past iniquities, and 
who is determined to persist in the commission of 
sin for the future. 

In order the more clearly to explain myself, and 
elucidate my subject, take two persons as exam- 
ples, the one a protestant, the other a catholic* 
Suppose them to be of the same age, equally 
instructed, and educated. Both, in looking ove: 
their past career, see much for which they must 
repent: both have sinned, and we suppose, griev- 
ously, and both are sincerely desirous to reconcile 
themselves with their heavenly Father, whom 
they have offended. In the estimation of the pro- 
testant, what would the former have to do, what 
course would he be obliged to pursue, in order to 
obtain pardon? 

First, he must necessarily repent, in the amari- 
tude of his heart, for his transgressions. Second- 
ly, he should resolve to avoid, as far as he can, 
the sins, and circumstances, which led him to the 
sins committed. Thirdly, he must have recourse 
by fervent and humble prayer to God, that he 
would be pleased, in his mercy, to wash out his 



LETTERS TO ADA. 145 

iniquities, and receive him back, as he did the 
prodigal, into his favour and his arms. With 
these dispositions, according to the universally 
admitted principles of all dissenting denominations? 
the young penitent is pardoned — his sins are for- 
given. 

Well, dearest Ada, in the catholic, precisely the 
same dispositions are indispensably necessary : 
and without them confession would be useless? 
void. The catholic must repent from the bottom 
of his heart: he must resolve to avoid the sins 
committed, and the circumstances which led to 
them. He must recommend himself, in the most 
humble and fervent manner to God : — and, of 
course, were he to do no more, he has as much 
right to pardon, as the protestant can claim. 
Were he to stop here, he would, according to the 
general belief, have done enough — his iniquities 
would be washed away. But, according to our 
church, he must go still further. To all these 
sincere and necessary dispositions, he must add 
the confession of his sins, and consequently he 
does more than the protestant — and therefore has 
another claim to pardon. 

Without these preliminary dispositions, you 
must understand, dear Ada, confession, far from 
being beneficial, would be another sin ; it would 
be a profanation. For, it cannot be seriously 

believed, that the catholic can dupe his own con- 

N 



146 LETTERS TO ADA* 

science, and blind his own reason, so far as to rest 
satisfied with the mere enumeration to his confes- 
sor of a dark catalogue of sins; he cannot be so 
recklessly stupid as to flatter his passions that the 
priest can forgive, what the Almighty himself 
cannot pardon. You, my fair friend, are adorned 
with too lofty a mind, to- entertain the smallest 
misgiving against your neighbour — because he is 
a catholic. Where will you find a purer heart, a 
more gentle spirit, a more brilliant pattern of the 
sweetest and loveliest virtues, than in the person 
of your bosom friend Aurelia ? and Aurelia is a 
catholic— Cultivate her friendship; converse freely 
on these subjects with her — ask her to pray for 
you, and request her not to forget me, when she 
kneels at her shrine. Adieu* 



LETTER XLI. 

Yes, Ada, by confessing, the catholic penitent 
evinces the most unequivocal testimonial of humili- 
ty and sincerity. For, deem it not a matter of mere 
form: it is a serious thing, to rehearse to a fellow 
man, the sins, the frailties, the propensities of the 
inmost heart; and I am persuaded that were con- 
fession not required by the institution of Christ 
himself, no one could ever be induced to practise 
it.— 



LETTERS TO ADA. 147 

<c What !" Mirandula exclaims, 

11 Can it be possibly required ? 
Show me, on what authority inspired, 

The papist rest his claims. 
Persuaded I can never be, 
That man should humbly bend his knee 

Before his fellow man. 
And whisper to his anxious ear, 

Each thought, each word, each wish, each fear, 
Confess to God, who will and can 
In silence wipe away each stain, 

Confession to the priest is vain." 

So sings Mirandula, in rather a strange lay: 
having little claim to pure poetry or sound reason. 
In brief prose, her objection is resolved to this. It 
cannot be required of man to reveal his sins to his 
fellow men: why? because it is too humiliating- 
this argument may be soothing to human nature, 
but it is destitute of logic, dear Ada. 

The whole system of christian morality is in 
direct opposition to the nature of man: and the 
fact of a system so contrary to all our propensities 
being admitted, and practised by all nations, 
proves the divinity of its character — and I contend, 
that for the very aversion which we all feel to the 
practice of confession, which prostrates the pride 
of the heart to the dust, a strong argument is de- 
rived in favour of the divine origin of the institu* 
tion. 

fl Would man forge fetters for himself to wear?" 



148 LETTERS TO ADA. 

Believe me, Ada, if there were not some positive 
command, issued by the Redeemer himself, and 
recorded in the holy scriptures, no christian would 
be so infatuated as to yield to the inversion of 
fanaticism, no honourable man would submit to a 
scheme of degrading speculation on the part of an 
interested portion of the community. There is 
a positive command, and I will adduce it in its 
proper place. In the meanwhile, dearest Ada, 
farewell. 



LETTER XLII. 



The night is lovely on the banks of the 



Over the fresh waters, glistening here and there 
in the beams, the silvery car of Diana ascends; 
while the Genius of the night, from his magic urn, 
sheds his dew, freshness, and fragrance upon the 
bosom of the river. The hour is beauteous — 
around me all is stillness, save where the whipo- 
will complains iu darkly solitude, or the owl 
screeches in his kindred shades. 

As I muse upon the spectacle, oh ! how many 
soothing associations crowd upon my memory, 
take possession of all the sensibilities of my heart ! 

I thank you for the description of that delicious 
excursion which you made on the Hudson, in 



LETTERS TO ADA. 149 

company with a clergyman, with whom you 
had leisure to commune on subjects which are ever 
interesting; to contemplate the grandeur, beauty, 
and magnificence of the scenery, on that splendid 
river, and to blend your sympathetic impressionsof 
the majesty of the Creator, and of the necessity of 
adoring and serving him, in the manner most ac- 
ceptable to his attributes. I once wrote a sonnet 
on the Hudson, which you are welcome to. 

Oh! seldom shone upon the Hudson's stream 

A more enchanting evening : — every beam 
Of the most beauteous sun-set, meek and calm, 

Melted away in hyacinthine hues : 
While from the bank, cool zephyr stole the balm 

Of every blooming thing ; — pleased to diffuse 
The spirit of perfume about the deck. 

Then hill on hill — on mountain mountain rose, 
Till on the vision, Catskill seemed a speck, 

And the deep shades fell from the "nest of crows." 
I gazed — when starting in majestic flight, 

Free as the winds he cleaved, an eagle soared, 
And towering nobly o'er the mountain's height, 

Streamed like our own proud flag aloft — the desert's Lord, 

You, perhaps, may call to } r our recollection an 
observation I made, when we once found ourselves 
hemmed round on the waters, by hills and rocks, 
without any visible aperture through which to 
proceed, " Ada, ;J I said, " it is thus we are sur- 
rounded with dangers in this world; and we re» 
N2 



150 LETTERS TO ADA. 

quire a skilful pilot to steer our way in safety to 
the port of eternity." 

"A confessor," you replied, "if discreet and 
wise, must be an excellent pilot to the soul, 
through the perils of temptation." 

" True," I returned, " for he not only can pre- 
scribe the proper course, but can absolve you from 
past irregularities." A gentleman standing by, 
overhearing the remark, with much politeness of 
manner, but evident reluctance to suppress his 
emotion, begged me to inform him whether man 
can forgive sins ? 

" Of himself" I answered, " man cannot forgive 
sins, the nature of man is the same in every human 
being : in all it is frail, peccable, and depraved." 

"But Sir," rejoined the stranger, begging to be 
excused for urging the subject, " do not the Ro- 
man catholics believe that their sins may be for- 
given by their priests ? ' In other words do they 
not believe that the priest can forgive sins V- 

I explained the matter thus : 

" The catholic believes that God has given the 
power to priests to absolve those who confess their 
sins with the necessary dispositions. The con- 
fessor is in a spiritual sense what the judge is in 
a political point of view — The latter is constituted 
of the same frail and human propensities as the 
former: he may, to-morrow, be guilty of the 
very crime against which, to-day, he pronounces 



LETTERS TO ADA. 151 

the sentence of the law : and jet, guilty as he is 
liable to become, and imperfect as he may be, his 
country has empowered him to adjudicate, decide, 
pronounce sentence, inflict punishment, or to re- 
lease, acquit, absolve. 

" The case is the same with regard to the former ; 
he may, in the presence of an Omniscient Provi- 
dence, be infinitely more guilty than the sinner 
who kneels at his tribunal, confesses, and implores 
pardon. And yet, there is conferred on him by 
the church, who derives it from God, the power of 
releasing and absolving: of loosing and binding." 

The gentleman at first seemed a little silenced, 
on the subject, but, after a few moments of rumina- 
tion, "the catholics," he remarked, "are the only 
denomination who admit that the power of for- 
giving sin, was ever given to man." 

I observed that he was mistaken, " all those 
christians who admit the efficacy of beptism, 
must and do at the same time, admit in the mi- 
nister the power to wash away original sin by the 
waters of regeneration." " Now," 1 argued, "if 
a minister, by the application of water, and the 
pronunciation of certain words, can efface original 
sin, why could not an equal power be conferred 
by Him who is omnipotent, by the pronunciation 
of a specified form of words, to efface the 
stain of actual sin? Certainly if God can make 
use of man as his agent and minister, in one in- 



158 LETTERS TO ADA. 

stance, he might do so in the other. The question 
is, has he done so? the catholic contends, that he 
has, and we insist that it is the conscientious duty 
of all who differ from us to examine the grounds 
on which our doctrine is established. For, if 
such power has been conferred on the priest, then 
the church which teaches this truth, contains 
within her pale, a tribunal, before which the 
seared heart may pour out its contrition and be 
healed — the lacerated conscience may find a balm, 
more soothing than that of Gideon — and the 
wounds of the soul may receive the oil of peace 
and health, more fragrant than that which stream- 
ed down the beard of Aaron." 

My explanation appeared reasonable to the 
stranger — was it not satisfactory to you, dear 
Ada? you assured me that j'ou would expect with 
impatient anxiety the proof, which I promised to 
send you, that the Redeemer did impart to the 
Apostles and their successors, the power of absolv- 
ing — In the following letter, I will comply with 
that promise. — 

It is neaily midnight — my light is dim — the 
breeze is rustling through the forest-trees, Ada, 
— Adieu, 



153 

LETTER XLIII. 

In order to obtain the pardon of his sins, Ada t 
the catholic believes that three conditions are 
necessary, when they can be had : but, that one 
is at all times, and under all circumstances, indis- 
pensable. In other words, he believes that pe- 
nance is composed of three parts, viz. contrition, 
confession, satisfaction: contrition always neces- 
sary ; confession and satisfaction when practicable. 

With regard to the first, all christians agree. In 
this there is no difference of opinion, no matter 
how wide and deep the chasm that may separate 
them in other respects. We too, believe, that 
confession would be utterly useless, and that there 
can be no real satisfaction, where there is not 
contrition, or sorrow. The heart must undergo 
a thorough change, the will must he purified and 
all the faculties of the soul sublimated by repent- 
ance, and the love of God and hatred of sin. 
Without this, the Almighty could not forgive us, 
much less the priest. 

The question, then, is concerning the second — 
confession, which we will now examine. 

Let us first have recourse to scripture, Ada, and 
see if we can discover any texts, from which the 
necessity of confession can be proved. Refer to 
the twentieth chapter of Saint John, verses twenty 



154 LETTERS TO ADA. 

one, twenty-two, and twenty-three. I will cite the 
protestant translation. 

" Then Jesus said to them again : peace be 
with you, as my Father hath sent me, even sol send 

you. 

" And when he said this he breathed on them, 
and saith to them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost : 

" Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted 
unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain they 
are retained." 

Here it evidently appears, that the apostles 
received the power to forgive sins. This is claim- 
ed not only by catholic divines, it is admitted 
by Chillingworth, in terms which should be en- 
graven on brass: treating on this text he says : 

" Can any man be so unreasonable as to imagine, 
that, when our Saviour, in so solemn a manner, 
having first breathed upon his disciples, thereby 
conveying and insinuating the Holy Ghost into 
their hearts, renewed unto them, or rather confirm- 
ed that glorious commission, &c. whereby he de- 
legated to them an authority of binding and loosing 
sins upon earth, &c. can any one think, I say, so 
unworthily of our Saviour, as to esteem these words 
of his for no better than compliment?" 

" Therefore, in obedience to his gracious will, and 
as I am warranted and enjoined by my holy mo- 
ther the church of England, 1 beseech you, that, 
by your practice and uses you will not suffer that 



LETTERS TO ADA. 155 

commission which Christ hath given to his minis- 
ters, to be a vain form of words, without any sense 
under them. When you find yourselves charged 
and oppressed &c. have recourse to your spiritual 
physician, and fully disclose the nature and ma- 
lignity of your disease, and come not to him only 
with such a mind as you would go to a learned 
man, as one that can speak comfortable things 
to you ; but as to one that hath authority delegat- 
ed to him from God himself, to absolve and acquit 

YOU OF YOUR SINS." 

This passage is taken from his Seventh Sermon 
on Religion, pages 408 and 409. 

It is very remarkable, dear Ada, that this acute 
writer meets the objection you have heard so often 
made; that the priest may counsel and direct the 
penitent but that he cannot absolve him. Chilling- 
worth expressly asserts, that the minister of pe- 
nance hath authority to absolve, and acquit of 

SINS. 

Turn next to the gospel of St. Matthew, six- 
teenth chapter and eighteenth and nineteenth 
verses : 

" And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter 
and upon this rock I will build my church and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it : And 
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth 
shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 



155 LETTERS TO ADA, 

Upon this text the Lutherans establish their 
doctrine, in common with our's, that absolution is 
a sacrament, and particular absolution is to be re- 
tained in confession. This appears from the Con- 
fession of Augsburgh, articles 11, 12, 13. 

The same is contained in the eighteenth chap- 
tar and eighteenth verse of the same gospel. 

" Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall 
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what- 
soever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in 
heaven." 

Again, the Acts of the Apostles inform us that 
the first christians declared their deeds ; see the 
nineteenth chapter, and eighteenth verse : 

" And many that believed came, and confessed, 
and showed their deeds.' 7 

St. James, in his Epistle, fifth chapter, and six- 
teenth verse, exhorts us to confess to one another. 
There certainly, then, can be no impropriety, on the 
contrary it is required, to confess to the ministers 
of religion, * 

" Confess your faults to one another,' 7 he writes, 
"and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.' 7 

Lastly, Saint John, in his first epistle, chapter 
first, verse the ninth, declares : 

11 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all 
unrighteousness." 

Although it may be urged that these two lass 



LETTERS TO ADA. 157 

cited texts do not unequivocally prove the necessity 
of auricular confession, still, no one can condemn 
me if, interpreting them according to the wisest 
and gravest commentators ancient and modern, I 
derive such necessity from them. Otherwise, the 
privilege, vindicated by all the eloquence of pro- 
testantism, perishes. I mean that of private inter- 
pretation. 

I leave thee, then, to ponder o'er, 

Dear Ada, in thy solitude, 
These 6acred texts, which ne'er before, 

Perhaps, by thee were understood : 
But candour dwells within thy heart ; 

The love of truth illumes thy mind: 
When truth her lustre will impart, 

Thou'lt leave dark prejudice behind. 

Adieu. 



LETTER XLIV. 

" It is ludicrous," I once heard a man of some 
repute for wisdom say, dear Ada, — u it is ludi- 
crous in the extreme, to see the catholic running to 
confession, as if that practice were founded in 
scripture, or authorized by the primitive writers!" 

You may conceive how little impression such 
language could make upon me, who had convinc- 
ed myself from the closest investigation, that it is 

O 



158 LETTERS TO ADA. 

an injunction emanating from the founder of Chris- 
tianity, and recorded in the earliest monuments of 
ecclesiastical history. 

I have, within rny reach, the authentic testimo- 
nies of the primitive fathers of the church, and I 
will quote some passages from them, which will 
convince you, my fair friend, that nothing is more 
venerable than the practice, so much decried by 
modern fanaticism, of auricular confession. 

First then, Saint Athanasius, a Greek father, in 
the first volume of his works, page 990, writes 
thus : 

" If your bonds are not broken, surrender your- 
selves to the disciples of Jesus Christ ; they are 
ready to set you free by the power they have re- 
ceived from our Saviour . we all 

labour under our respective vices: we all stand in 
need of being healed by our Saviour, and of the 
assistance of his ministers^ that we may be freed 
from the captivity of the Devil. w 

In this passage, the venerable author places the 
ministry of the clergy in conjunction with the 
power of Christ : and asserts, that by both united, 
the sinner will be pardoned, confession is certain- 
ly insinuated by " the assistance of the ministers ? J 

Saint Basil, another Greek father, is still more 
distinct : 

" Necessarily," he writes, (in Quast brev. 
Reg. page 288) "our sins must be confessed to 



LETTERS TO ADA. 159 

those to whom has been committed the dispensa- 
tion of the mysteries of God." 

This quotation requires no comment — the ne- 
cessity of confession is distinctly urged. 

Saint Chrysostom, likewise a Greek, in his 
twentieth Homily on Genesis, speaks in the fol- 
lowing terms : 

u If the sinner, as becomes him, would use the 
salutary aid of his conscience, and hasten to con- 
fess his crimes and disclose his ulcer to the phy- 
sician, who may heal and not reproach, and re- 
ceive remedies from him ; if he would speak to him 
alone, without the privity of any one, and with 
care lay all before him, easily would he amend his 
failings — for the confession of sins, is the absolu- 
tion of crimes. " 

In such strong and unequivocal language, did 
the oriental fathers insist on the efficacy and ne- 
cessity of confession. What would the grave per- 
sonage who accused us of acting ludicrously in 
this matter, have said, had this passage been placed 
under his consideration ! what is your impression 
thus far, mv dearest Ada ? 

But let us consult the Latin fathers, and com- 
pare their sentiments on this subject, with those of 
the Greek writers. Turn to saint Cyprian, in his 
work on the Fallen, page 134, and conclude for 
yourself : 

H All, my brethren, must confess their faults, 



160 LETTER3 TO ADA. 

while he thai has offended enjoys life ; while his 
confession can he received, and while satisfaction 
and pardon imparted by the priests are acceptable 
before God. 

Saint Augustin, in his work on Visiting the 
Sick, addresses the sick person in this manner : 

" Beg, therefore, the priest to come to you, and 
open to him your conscience. Be not seduced by 
the reveries of those superstitious ones, who would 
persuade you, that confession made to God, of 
which the priest knows nothing, will save you — 
undoubtedly we ought frequently to be acknow- 
ledging ourselves guilty before God : this we do 
not deny: but we tell you, and sound doctrine 
teaches you, that you have need of the salutary 
sentence of the priest, which is to intervene between 
you and your God." 

Can there be any doubt, after this passage, and 
especially that marked in italics, of the conviction 
of Saint Augustin, on the subject of confession ? 
Does he not speak as plainly as language can 
convey his ideas ? Does he not express himself 
precisely in the terms of a modern catholic ? and 
should not our adversaries, before thej' ridicule our 
custom, read attentively the original texts of this 
venerable, this saintly writer. — 

Saint Jerome agrees perfectly with Augustin. 
One very short extract will suffice to convince you 



Letters to ada. 161 

'of this, Ada. In his Commentary on the Sixteenth 
Chapter of St. Matthew, he writes as follows- 

" The priest having heard, as his duty requires, 
the various qualities of sin, understands who 
should be bound, and who should be loosed." 

It is then, according to Saint Jerome, the duly 
of thepriest, to hear the various sins of the peni- 
tent — this can be clone only by confession : con- 
sequently confession to the priest is a duty. — 

Is not this correct reasoning, dear Ada ? — and 
is it not beyond all* question, that Saint Jerome 
believed in the necessity of confession — and, of 
course, was a catholic. 

I have met with another passage from Saint 
Augustin, which I cannot refrain from copying: 
it is taken from his Enarration on the sixty-sixth 
Psalm : 

" Be sorrowful, therefore," he writes, "before 
confession; after it be glad, for now thou shalt be 
healed. Thy conscience had collected matter: 
the imposthume had swelled: it pained thee: it 
allowed thee no rest. The physician applies the 
fermentation of advice: he has recourse, when the 
evil requires it, to the knife. Do thou embrace 
the hand — confess, and, in this confession may all 
that is foul be done away." 

These quotations will suffice, dear Ada, to con- 
vince you of the fact, that confession, as practised 
at the present day in the catholic church, was in 
02 



162 LETTERS TO ADA. 

use, .and considered necessary, in those ages, when 
according to the concession of all, religion was in 
her original purity. I will next show from the 
most indisputable authority, that it was approved 
of, and deemed an Apostolic Institution, by many 
of the gravest writers of the church of England — 
nay, I will go farther — I will make it clear, that 
the original canons of that church, required under 
certain circumstances, that confession should be 
made. For the present, Ada, farewell. 



LETTER XLV. 

I have just got back from a ride, dear Ada, 
through a very beautiful country — and although 
I have been out no short time, it is yet very early, 
the sun just beginning to send forth from the clear 
horizon his first rays. What a healthful, and 
cheering mode of exercising 1 every breeze inhaled 
imparts new vigour to the lungs, fresh alacrity to 
the spirits, anc( an enlivening elasticity to the 
nerves. 

When gloom enshrouds the drooping hearjt, 

And languor loosens every nerve , 
Knowest thou what will effectually impart 
Fresh vigour, Ada ? what preserve 

Decaying health f 



LETTERS TO ADA. 163 

Rise, as the morning streaks the east, 

With its first tints of orient light ; 
Mount the sleek steed, the mountain breezes breast j 
Upon the verdure feast thy sight, 

And catch by stealth, 

The passing fragrance of the field, 

Where on the grass and clover sweet, 

The dew-drops glistening all their freshness yield : 

There wilt thou bracing vigour meet 
Dearer than wealth. 

Refreshed after my morning exercise, I sit down, 
full of the subject of my correspondence, dear Ada, 
and joyfully continue the theme, which at once 
elevates the mind to the highest speculations, and 
recalls the image of truth in all its fairest delinea- 
ments, before my fancy's eye. 

Have I not satisfied you with regard to the 
testimonies adduced from the primitive Fathers, 
on the subject of confession? From the au- 
thorities which I mean to quote below, it will as 
evidently appear, that the founders of the church 
of England, admitted the importance of this an- 
cient dogma, and sought to enforce the practice 
of it, at least on certain occasions. 

The following passage is familiar to all Episco- 
palians, dear Ada, at least the language is imprint- 
ed on their memories, though its meaning perhaps, 
has never been seriously analyzed by many. 

"And because it is requisite that no man should 



164 LETTERS TO ADA. 

come to the holy communion, but with a full trust 
in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience ; 
therefore, if there be any of you, who by this 
means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, 
but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him 
come to me," (says the minister,) "or to some 
other discreet and learned minister of God's word, 
and open his grief; that by the ministry of God's 
holy word, he may receive the benefit of absolution^ 
together with ghostly counsel and advice, to the 
quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all 
scruple and doubtfulness." 

There is a manifest stress laid upon absolution, 
which is contradistinguished from "ghostly coun- 
sel and advice.' ' The minister is stated to have 
the power to impart that blessing, and it is declar- 
ed to be the duty of all such as experience the 
least disquietude or scruple of conscience, to have 
recourse to his ministry, and profit by his power* 

The principle is then admitted by the ancient 
protestant, as well as the catholic church* We 
only extend the duty further than our separated 
brethren, and instead of binding those whose 
consciences cannot be perfectly calmed by their 
own devotion and faith, we command all, at least 
once in the year, to approach to the tribunal of 
confession. 

In the visitation of the sick, the obligation is. 
made almost indispensable on the part of thfe 



LETTERS TO ADA. 165 

infirm penitent, to confess : for the minister is en- 
joined to exhort him 

"To make a special confession of his 
sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any 
weighty matter." 

Now, where is to be found the person, who, as 
the shades of death are gathering about his pillow, 
when the delusion of life is fading away, and 
fashion, and dissipation, and mirth are hushed 
into the anticipated silence of the grave — where, I 
ask, is the person, under these circumstances, 
when examining his conscience with the awe of 
God's judgment before his mind, when surveying 
the past, from the dawn of reason to the day of his 
decline, but will feel his conscience troubled ? and 
therefore, where is the christian, who will not be 
bound to make "a special confession of his sins?" 

After his confession, the priest shall absolve 
him — the piotestant ritual directs in these words : 

" Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to 
his church to absolve all sinners, who truly repent 
and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive 
thee thine offences: and by his authority commit- 
ted to me, I absolve Thee from all thy sins, in 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost. Amen." 

This is, in substance, the very form of absolu- 
tion used in the catholic church, dear Ada. And 
yet, when the poor servant-girl asks permission of 



16G LETTERS TO ADA. 

her protestant mistress to go to confession, she is 
laughed at, deemed priest-ridden and silly. — " Do 
you go to the priest for absolution ?" she exclaims, 
— "who can forgive sins but God alone V J 

Little does she reflect upon the requisitions of 
her own church, or understand the spirit of its 
primitive institutions. As for yourself, dear Ada, 
you have ever respected this dogma, and, after 
reading what I have to adduce on the subject, 
peradventure you may feel it a duty to practise 
what you respect. Adieu. 



LETTER XL VI. 

In order to leave no doubt whatever on your 
mind, dear Ada, touching the spirit and meaning 
of the general rubric of the church of England, I 
will, in this letter, bring before your consideration 
several passages from the works of the most emi- 
nent authors. I have before, on several occasions, 
quoted Dr. Montague, I again refer you to his u Ap- 
peal," chapter thirty-second : 

" Private confession to a priest," (he there 
writes) " is of very ancient practice in the church, 
of excellent use and benefit ; being discreetly han- 
dled. We refuse it to none, if men require it, if 
need be to have it : we urge and persuade it in 



LETTERS TO ADA. 



167 



extremis : we require it in the case of perplexitie 
for quieting of men disturbed, and their con- 



sciences.'' 



The church of England, then, has the right, ac- 
cording to this distinguished prelate of that com- 
munion, to require the confession of sins. The 
catholic church claims the same right: and the 
only difference is, that instead of requiring it 
merely under certain circumstances, she requires 
it once a year, at least, and especially in extremis. 

What ground, then, has the modern protestant 
to inveigh, with so much emphasis and artful al- 
lusion, against this practice, which is manifestly 
grounded upon scriptural authority and vindicated 
by such a man as the bishop of Chester. 

But think not Ada, that he stands alone in 
his opinion: no, there are others of no less emi- 
nence in the same church, who confirm his doc- 
trine, and assert the claims for which I now con- 
tend. 

Bishop Andrews, his contemporary, not merely 
admits the expediency of private confession, but 
goes still further, and contends for its necessity. 
In his court sermon, preached before James I., dis- 
cussing the twenty-third verse of the twenty -se- 
cond chapter of St. John, he expresses himself 
thus : 

" We are not, the ordinance of God thus stand- 
ing, to rend off one part of the sentence : There 



168 LETTERS TO ADA. 

are here expressed, three persons: 1. Trie person 
of the sinner, in whose, 2, of God, in are forgiven. 
3, of the priest in you shall forgive. Three are 
expressed ; and where three are expressed, three 
are required : and where three are required, two 
are not enough." 

Is not this the genuine doctrine of the catholic 
church, dearest Ada? and do 1, in defending the 
institution of confession, do any thing more, than 
was done, so clearly and ably, by the renowned 
protestant prelate whose language I have cited 1 

When friend and foe unite together 

To vindicate a fact, 
I ask you, fairest Ada, whether 
Reason could more desire, 
Philosophy require, 
Or incredulity exact ? 

Certainly not ; every ingenuous mind must admit 
that, since confession is advised by one denomina- 
tion, and required by another, it does not deserve 
the sarcasms which the hollow wit of certain su- 
perficial writers would fain cast upon it. 

The authority of bishop Andrews will prepon- 
derate over all the sophistry of our prejudiced ad- 
versaries ; and what will be the power of argu- 
ment, when to his name is added that of Augustin, 
whom he quotes to support his position : 

" It is," he continues in the above-cited sermon, 



LETTERS TO ADA. 169 

" Saint Augustin that thus speaketh of the eccle- 
siastical act in his time." 

After which he makes the following solid ob- 
servation : 

11 God ordinarily proceedeth in remitting sin, by 
the church's act. And hence they have their part 
in this work, and cannot be excluded ; no more in 
this than in other acts and parts of their function, 
and to exclude them, is (after a sort) to wring the 
keys out of their hands, to whom Christ hath 
given them ; is to cancel and make void this clause 
of you shall forgive, as if it were no part of the 
sentence ; to account of all this solemn sending 
and inspiring, as if it were an ^idle and fruitless 
ceremony." . 

In enforcing the necessity of auricular confes- 
sion, therefore, Ada, I merely insist upon carrying 
into effect the commission given by the Redeemer ; 
a practice common to all divines, during past 
ages; and a requisition acknowledged and ap- 
proved by the most learned divines of the protes- 
tant denorniaation. Luther himself, though in 
most points, avowedly hostile to the usages of 
the catholic church, far from condemning this doc- 
trine, affirms that he believes it to be of infinite 
utility — in his own language : 

" Man," he writes, " ought to confess to God 
all his sins, even those he knows not of ; and to 
his director those only he knows and feels 

P 



170 LETTERS TO ADA. 

in his conscience." This is all that we require — 
In these words of the arch-reformer are contained" 
the meaning" and spirit of the injunction of our re- 
ligion regarding sacramental confession. But r 
unfortunately, dearest Ada, the system even of 
that far-famed champion in the cause of the refor- 
mation has long since changed in this particular 
and every other one adopted upon similar grounds, 
depending upon the mobility of the human mind,, 
the caprice of the human intellect, must be subject 
to perpetual changes. 

11 Tanquam 



Sit proprium quidquam, puncto quod mobilis horae, 
Nunc prece, nunc pretio, nunc vi, nunc sorte suprema 
Permutet Dominos — " 

No, Ada, there is nothing unchangeable but the 
institutions of that true religion which stands 
established, supported, and secured, on the pro- 
mises of its divine founder. His word has been 
given ; and, though heaven and earth may pass 
away, his word shall not pass away. 

Adieu, 



171 



LETTER XLV. 



May I be allowed, dear Ada, to quote one of the 
■most beautiful, though, unfortunateljr, one of the 
most dangerous, writers of France ? Perhaps the 
topic which 1 am now discussing could not derive 
in its support a more popular argument than that 
founded on the authority, based upon the dispas- 
sionate observation, of a philosopher. I am not cer- 
tain that you have ever read the Emileoi Rosseau, 
a work fraught with talent, beauty, sentiment, 
science, truth, and extraordinary inconsistency. 

The greatest writer now living in France, I do 
not except even Chateaubriand, has in a very 
powerful and elegant essay, styled " L'Essai sur 
L' indifference" clearly detected the strange inco- 
herencies and refuted the singular sophistry of that 
splendid writer, I have the honour to be person- 
ally acquainted with the author of that essay. 

Yet, we must admit, that no man is better able 
to take a dispassionate view of the effects and na- 
ture of things, than a philosopher ! and the more 
opposed he may be to Christianity, the more potent 
and satisfactory should be his testimony in favour 
of any particular dogma of religion. Rosseau 
then, my dearest Ada, in observing the salutary 
consequences of confession, could not restrain his 
.admiraiion, but broke forth into the following ex- 



172 LETTERS TO ADA. 

clamation, which I treasure up as worth more than 
all the declamation of certain professors in certain 
theological seminaries, or the sickly productions of 
certain "Watchmen" who smell strongly of the 
lamp: 

" What works of mercy are the works of the 
gospel !" exclaims Jean Jacques — " What repara- 
tions and restitutions does not confession cause to 
be made among the catholics ! Among all, what 
effect has the approach of the period for commu- 
nion in producing reconciliation and alms-deeds !" 
Emile, Tom. III. 

Fair Ada, well mayest thou 
Judge of the nature of confession now : 

Thou now canst see 
How very easy it may be 

To ridicule, to sneer at, and 

Condemn, what we least understand. 

But when we calmly view the grounds 

On which the church her doctrine founds : 
The practice of the great and good 
The scripture rightly understood ; 
The fathers of the earliest times 

The Liturgies of east and west; 
The custom of all climes — 

The authority of all the best 
And wisest of the reformation 

With Martin Luther at their head : 
The brightest prelates of the English nation, 

Whose works survive, though they are dead r 
Viewing these grounds, my Ada, it were vain 
Against this doctrine ever to complain. 



LETTERS TO ADA, 173 

Oh ! were we truly penetrated with sorrow for 
'sin — were we thoroughly acquainted with the na- 
ture of sin! did we solemnly reflect upon what it 
has cost the Redeemer, the punishment conse- 
quent upon it in this and the future world, did 
we consider how the angels fell from their bright 
spheres pursued by thunder into the abyss of eter- 
nal wo — how our first parents were banished from 
the calm and blissful shades of Eden; what scourges 
have devastated the guilty world; the wars, famine., 
pestilence, that have swept away its inhabitants — 
we should be more ready to submit to any humili- 
ating condition which the Almighty might have- 
thought proper to require, in order that sin may be 
pardoned. He has been offended: it rests with 
him, not with ourselves, to prescribe the conditions 
of pardon. Those conditions, no matter how re- 
pugnant to our nature, it is manifest we must sub- 
mit to, if we desire to obtain mercy and reconcilia- 
tion. But from every side, from all possible au- 
thority, I have derived the necessary condition of 
confession : from the scripture, from the primitive 
fathers, from the universal practice, from the tes- 
timony of the most eminent protestant divines, and 
what more remains, dearest Ada, but to leave you 
to your own considerations, to your own calm con- 
clusions, and sacred convictions. 

Adieu, 
P 2 



174 



LETTER XLVI1I. 

(t Whatever may be alleged in favour of con- 
fession" said a learned jurisconcult to a venerable 
clergyman in your presence, Ada, " Indulgences 
can have no foundation to rest on." This is, in- 
deed, a very positive assertion; it is a sweeping 
sentence, whicn, if true, lays low the entire edifice 
of Catholicism. If no authority, of the most in- 
dubitable character, could be adduced to support 
the divine origin, and proper administration of 
indulgences, certainly the church which maintains 
them, would not possess the attribute of truth, in 
all her doctrines. It will require but a few words 
to convince you, my fair friend, that however 
learned the gentleman may be in the law, he cer- 
tainly evinces no little ignorance with regard to 
the original institutions of Christianity. 

I am fully aware, in entering on this subject, 
that no other article of the catholic creed has been 
animadverted upon with more keen severity, and 
bitter satire, than this. I do not forget that it 
was this that shook the foundations of Christen- 
dom, in the beginning of the sixteenth century — 
that was " the spring 

of woes unnumbered." 
and that even now constitutes the theme of the 
modern controvertist, and the taunt of the modem 
infidel. 



LETTERS TO ADA. 175 

But it is necessary, in order to form a correct 
idea of the tenet, that you should receive a real 
definition of it. I am ready to avow, that were 
the doctrine such as it is mis-stated to be, no one 
would stand forward too promptly or too ener- 
getically to condemn, refute, repudiate it. The ad- 
versaries of the catholic church would not be able 
to wield against such a system a more unrelenting 
weapon than myself. 

But, Ada, you will soon be convinced of the in- 
justice which is done us — of the temerity, not to 
use a harsher term, of our opponents, in framing 
for us a doctrine, as senseless as it is impious ; as 
absurd as irreligious. 

They state, and you find it in the most popular, 
as well as the most prosing effusions, that an in- 
dulgence is the permission to commit sin, and an 
unconditional pardon for the past, present, and the 
future. 

Now, I put the question, in all the simplicity 
which language admits of, and I ask : what is an 
indulgence I 

I answer first, negatively : it is not a license to 
commit sin, it is not an encouragement of sin, it is 
not a pardon of sin, either in this world or that to 
come. 

You remember — no, not you, my dearest Ada, 
for you never conceived of our doctrine the opinions 
propagated by its adversaries ; yet I am sure you 



Hf> LETTERS TO ATU. 

feel a sentiment of astonishment how, after every 
enlightened writer on these subjects protests so 
unequivocally and solemnly against the manner 
in which they are mis-represented, the mis-state- 
ment is believed, and little or no attention is paid 
to the plain and genuine doctrine concerning in- 
dulgences. 

There is one, however, wh6 will turn an atten- 
tive ear to the voice of candour and truth : and 
she is Ada. 

Having given a negative definition of an indul- 
gence, I will now state the positive definition of it. 

An indulgence is the release from temporal pu- 
nishment due to sin, after the sin has been forgiven. 

You will observe, then, that it has nothing to do 
with the remission of sin : it pre-supposes that the 
sin is forgiven. It merely affects the punishment 
which often is inflicted upon the sinner, after he 
has repented for his iniquities. 

You will not ask, as Florentine, 

With satire playing in her smile — 
(Such is the calm, pure ray of thine, , 

It could not be bedimmed by guile) 
" What ! does the punishment remain ; 

After repentance has effaced the stain ! 
This is a dream of popery ! 
It cannot, no, it cannot be !" 

You know, though Adam was forgiven, 
The woes which/rom his sin have flowed : 

With Eve, his fickle consort driven, j 
From their once innocent abode : 



LETTERS TO ADA. 177 

Sent by the seraph's burning sword, 
Exiles, before the vengeance of the Lord ! 

Condemned, alas ! with their own sweat, 

The bread of bitterness to eat ! 

And David, though his lyre had oft 

Been watered with contrition's tears : 
And sorrow's minstrelsy, so soft 

And deeply plaintive wailed his prayers ; 
And though the holy seer of Heaven 
Assured him that his sin had been forgiven ; 
Still was he doomed, at the same time, 
To lose the offspring of his crime. 

You have only to consult, dear Ada, the second 
book of Kings, chapter the twelfth, verse the 
fourteenth, to make yourself acquainted with, or 
rather to bring back to your memory, all the par- 
ticulars of this fact. 

Florentine, then, need not lay such a significant 
stress upon her interrogatory, for, nothing is more 
certain than that certain punishment does remain 
to be inflicted after the sin itself has been forgiven. 

I desire you particularly to bear in mind, dear 
Ada, that the guilt of sin is not in any manner, 
remissible by the application of an indulgence- 
Forgiveness of sin requires the deep sorrow of the 
heart, a detestation of the iniquity, a resolution to 
avoid it : without these conditions, no indulgence, 
no absolution, nothing can confer pardon. When, 
therefore, it is asserted, that by purchasing an iu- 
dulgence, the catholic may obtain a general license 



178 LETTERS TO ADA. 

to commit sin, you will know how to treat so 
baseless, and calumnious statement; you will re„- 
member what I love to insist upon, as it is the real 
doctrine of my church, that unless there be sorrow 
and repentance, all the indulgences ever granted 
from the earliest ages down to the present day, 
would be idle, useless, and inapplicable. 

Inform Florentine of this, Ada,, and assure her 
that I am a catholic. Adieu. 



LETTER XLIX. 

" I have brought you, my dear uncle," said The- 
odore, running to me with an eye beaming with 
sentiment, " one of my prettiest flowers, it is a wild 
moss rose, smell it, how fragrant ! keep it, as long 
as it retains its freshness — " and he placed it upon 
my breast. 

I thought, when I viewed that lovely flower, how 
evanescent is life ! and I said to myself, this flower 
so fresh and beautiful reminds me to continue the 
correspondence we have been carrying on, and I 
retired to my study with that intention. 

Hardly had I sat down at my desk, before the 
servant knocked at my door, to inform me that a 
stranger wished to see me. He was a professor in a 



LETTERS TO ADA. 17^ 

neighbouring theological seminary, and " not un- 
known to fame." In the classics, and polite lite- 
rature, he was an accomplished scholar ; on the 
subject of the catholic religion, as ignorant as a 
child. 

He introduced himself to me, of whom, he said) 
he had often heard ; and peremptorily declared 
that his object in troubling me, on this occasion, 
was to converse on the subject of indulgences. 

? How can an educated man defend the abuses," 
he observed, " growing out of the system of indul- 
gences ?" 

"The abuses, sir," I replied, "no sensible catholic 
would pretend to vindicate ; on the contrary, it is 
the duty of every one to deprecate them most can- 
didly." 

11 Of course, then, the whole system must fall." 

11 How do you arrive at such a conclusion?" I 
returned. 

" Because what is liable to be so egregiously 
abused, cannot be the work of God," he urged. 

il This is very illogical reasoning, sir ; Christi- 
anity itself has been abused in every possible man- 
ner ; the deist argues against it, on the same ground 
which you assume, against this particular tenet. I 
care not how many vessels may have been freighted 
with indulgences for South America — I have no- 
thing to do with them ; all I contend for, is the 
pure original doctrine as it was established, and is 
believed by the church." 



180 LETTERS TO ADA. 

The conversation continued for a considerable 
time, the substance of which, as it is precisely on 
the topic which I have been treating, I will make 
the subject of my next letter. The professor's ideas 
seemed to undergo a serious change, before we se- 
parated ; and, I am confident, that you, my fair 
friend, will agree with me. that the doctrines of 
the catholic church need but be examined,, to be 
admired ; perhaps, I might add, when there is ques- 
tion of one so sincere and ingenuous as yourself 
to be admitted. Adieu. 



LETTER L, 

The substance of my conversation with the pro- 
fessor, dear Ada, was as follows : I stated, that an 
indulgence, in its original acceptation, was nothing 
more than a dispensation from the whole or a 
part of the punishment required by the canons of 
the church, for sufficient motives of which the chief 
pastor was the judge. For instance, certain sins 
were visited with certain rigid penalties. The 
man guilty of a public crime, was condemned to 
undergo a public penance. If, then, it appeared 
that such a person had the dispositions of sorrow 
which the modern protestant would require, he 
might, by contributing a certain sum of money for 



LETTERS TO ADA. 181 

the relief of the sick in the hospitals : or for the 
orphan in asylums; or for the propagation of the 
christian religion among infidels, or for the build- 
ing of churches, be relieved from the shame and 
rigour of the penalty, which the canons demand- 
ed. In one word, Ada, an indulgence was merely 
an exemption, for good reasons, and granted by 
proper authority, from the canonical punishment : 
not a remission of the sin. 

The professor asked me, if there was any text 
in scripture from which the propriety of such in- 
dulgence could be derived 2 I referred him, as I now 
do you, dear Ada, to the example of St. Paul, who 
certainly exercised the power claimed by the pas- 
tors of the church, when after excommunicating the 
Corinthian, he restored him, upon being convinced 
of his sorrow, to the privileges and communion of 
the faithful. 

Turn to the first Epistle to the Corinthians, 
chapter fifth, and you will read these verses : 

" It is reported commonly," this is the protes- 
tant version, " that there is fornication among you, 
and such fornication as is not so much as named 
among the Gentiles, that one should have his fa- 
ther's wife. 

And ye are puffed up, and have not rather 
mourned that he that hath done this deed might 
not be taken from among you. 

For I verily, as absent in body, but present in 

Q 



182 LETTERS TO ADA. 

spirit, have judged already as though I were pfe* 
sent, concerning him that hath done this d eed. 

In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, when ye 
are gathered together, and my spirit with the 
power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 

To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruc- 
tion of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in 
the day of the Lord Jesus." 

In these texts, it is very certain, St. Paul ex- 
communicates, to make use of the proper, though 
not the most popular term, the sinful Corinthian. 

I will show you, from another passage, that, 
perceiving in him extraordinary signs of repent- 
ance, the apostle did away the punishment to 
which he had originally doomed him ; granted 
him, if I may use the term, a plenary indulgence. 

Take the trouble, Ada, to turn to the second 
Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter the second, 
verses tenth and eleventh. 

" To whom ye forgive any thing I forgive also, 
for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, 
for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. 

Lest Satan should get advantage of us : for we 
are not ignorant of his devices." 

That this refers to the same individual whom he 
delivered over to Satan, all the ancient commen- 
tators agree. St. Paul restored him to the com- 
munion from which he had been ejected : he dis- 
pensed with the long and rigid penalties which 



LETTERS TO ADA. 183 

under ordinary circumstances, be would have been 
compelled to undergo. In one word, the apostle 
granted an indulgence, which indulgence had no 
reference to the sin committed, but merely, as in- 
dulgences are granted by the church, to the 
punishment due to that sin. 

But, I have seen it objected, Ada, that the col- 
lectors of the moneys derived from the application 
of indulgences, proclaimed that they had the ef- 
ficacy to do away both punishment and guilt. 

I have merely to answer, in the language of the 
Council of Vienna, held in the year 1311, under 
Clement V, (a very dark period no doubt !) 

" We, desirous of abolishing such abuses, which 
degrade ecclesiastical censures, and bring contempt 
upon the keys, forbid most strictly the com- 
mission in future, of any and all such unworthy 
practices — ." 

This 1 deem a sufficient reply to all the parti- 
culars, collected and exaggerated and published, 
and re-published, by " professors," " Watchmen," 
.and " essayists." 

Then from their pages turn, 

My friend to ours : 
Tell me, if thou wouldest learn 

The nature, tenets, powers, 

Of an association, 
Wo«ld it be proper, wise 

Or fair to read 



184 LETTERS TO ADA. 

What its worst enemies 

In hate against it spread ! 
Wouldst thou not rather seek 

In their own works, 
In which their learned speak , 

Than in those books where lurks 
Fierce indignation ! 

Believe not, then, our pure religion's foes, 

The catholic best his own religion knows. 

And the more you will become acquainted with it, 
the more, or I am egregiously mistaken, you will 
admire it. Adieu. 



LETTER LI. 

You have read, dear Ada, the beautiful lines of 
Cowper, to the Cricket. There are few pieces that 
congenialise, if I may be allowed to form a new 
verb, more sympathetically with my feelings, than 
that simple, impromptu-effusion of one of the most 
pleasing writers, as I believe him to be, in our lan- 
guage. 

Well, the household song of the cricket is now 
chirruping in my ear, and I pause, and with the 
tenderest reminiscences breaking on my memory, I 
think of long since departed days, when I was a 
child, Ada; when I nodded, half asleep, at this 
hour, upon my mother's lap, the solitary cricket 
kept his vigils on the hearth, singing I know not 
what ditty, plaintive, feeling, and home-born! 



Letters To ada. 1S5 

Home ! Home ! oh sacred name ! 

Where is it? — where we played 
In child-hood — where the hallowed flame 

Of young affection was first lit : 
Oh, is there aught, fair maid, 
As life advances, to compare with it ! 

One as devoted to home, as you are, dear Ada, will 
feel, as I do, that, travel where we may, form what- 
ever new friendships we may, there is nothing to 
compare with the sweet scenes, the sacred associa- 
tions, the tender reminiscences of our domestic 
hearth. I have wandered much. Four times has 
the ocean borne me upon his perilous waters, I 
have passed the beauteous realms of France, I 
have seen the romantic valleys of Savoy, I have 
crossed the tremendous Alps, I have travelled 
through Italy, and have enjoyed the classic scenes 
of that most beauteous country, and yet " sweet, 
home !" 

I think I very much need an indulgence for di- 
gressing so often from the subject before us, do 
I not, Ada ? 

Gregory the Seventh, in the year 1057, some 
four hilndred, and more years, before Luther arose 
to preach against the practice, granted indulgences 
to the bishop of Lincoln, "on condition," to use 
the Pope's own language, "that applying yourself 
to good works, and bewailing your past sins, you 
make of your body a pure temple of God." 

Gelasius II. in the year 1118, asserts, that " each 

Q 2 



186 LETTERS TO ADA. 

one receives the value of indulgences, in proportion 
to his penance (or repentance) and good works." 

Innocent IV. in 1243 writes : " Indulgences are 
generally granted to labour, perils, and devout ex- 
ercises ; some, nevertheless, derive more benefit 
from them than others, according as they dispose 
themselves for them with greater devotion." 

Urban VIII., proclaiming the customary jubi- 
lee, in 1300, thus addresses the archbishops and 
bishops : 

" Instruct your people that in vain will they ex- 
pect to derive any benefit from the sacred treasure 
of indulgences, if they do not prepare themselves 
hy a contrite and humble heart, and do not exer- 
cise themselves in works of christian piety." 

Does this look like a full pardon for sin past 
and future, Ada ! Do not these pontiffs, who flou- 
rished amid the reputed darkness and ignorance 
of the middle ages, agree perfectly with the doc- 
trine which I have laid down, and the church in- 
culcates, in the nineteenth century ! In the name 
of honour, therefore, and justice, and religion, give 
no credence whatever to the fabrications of men 
who invent to suit the taste of prejudice, or falsify 
to pander to their own interest and speculations. 

But, Ada, how surprising will it appear to the 
modern protestant to learn, that even the church 
of England was in the habit of conceding indul- 
gences, granting commutations! and that there 



LETTERS TO ADA. 18? 

were certain officers appointed by the ecclesiastical 
courts, to collect the moneys, paid for such commu- 
tations. 

There are authentic documents substantiating 
this fact: and, for your satisfaction, Ada, and the 
instruction of your friends who may peruse this let- 
ter, I will cite the original canon, which refers to 
them : 

<( That no chancellor or commissary, or official 
shall have power to commute any penance, in 
whole or in part, but either together with the 
bishop, f &c. that he shall give a full and just account 
of such commutations to the bishop, who shall see 
that all such moneys shall be disposed of for cha- 
ritable and public uses, according to law — saving 
always to ecclesiastical officers their dut and accus- 
tomablefees." Canon four teenth. Sparrow, page 368. 

Is it not undeniable, therefore, dear Ada, that 
indulgences were granted by the canon law, as 
well as approved and regulated by the civil law, 
in England. Did not the framers of the constitu- 
tion of the English church understand its spirit 
and bearing better than the professors of the same 
creed do, at the present era, in this country? If 
your protestant friends ridicule the idea of indul- 
gences in the catholic church, do not fail to point 
their attention to the canon above quoted, and they 
will there perceive their inconsistency. For your- 
self, dear Ada, Adieu. 



188 



LETTER Lll. 



Thus, have I brought the present series to a 
close, dear Ada. Never was a more grateful task 
undertaken, than that I have performed. With a 
correspondent so amiable, intellectual, and sincere, 
it is a pleasure, seldom enjoyed, to commune. 
The summer is now verging towards its close : the 
country has lost many of its comforts and beau- 
ties, and the approaching autumn, which will soon 
lay bare the luxuriance of the forest foliage, and 
chill the lengthening evenings, warns me to return 
to the city, and to resume my wonted occupations. 

Fair seat of my ancestors, adieu ! spirit of sum- 
mer, that didst scatter thy fragrance and loveliness 
around me; cool zephyr whose aerial wings, wet 
with morning-dew and stored with health; were 
wont to fan me in my matin ramblings; pure 
stream, whose crystal mirror gave back, in pellu- 
cid reflection, the calm azure of the vesper firma- 
ment ; and ye blythe warblers of the grove, fare- 
well. The dull monotony, the rigid realities of my 
professional avocations await me, amid the busi- 
ness, and selfishness of the city's noisy vortex. 

How empty, Ada, all that may be there acquir- 
ed ! how vain every thing, save that eternal trea- 
sure, which truth, religion, and heart-felt piety, 
can alone bestow : 



LETTERS TO ADA. 489 

Oh ! is not all that glares and smiles 

In wealth's deep mines, in beauty's glow- 
On ! is not ail for which man toils, 

And labour wastes itself below, 
Vain fleeting, false I— and genius, too, 

With all its lustre beaming bright, 
And fancy, with each varied hue, 

Sparkling, like rainbow tints, with light; 

And fashion, with her gaudy train, 

Decked with her flowers, adorned with gems, 
And grandeur towering by, are vain, 

And vain the monarch's diadems. 
Pleasure, with wanton tresses fair, 

Tripping luxuriant o'er the mead, 
With scented chaplets on her hair 

And roses springing where she treads, 

Is but a phantom gliding through 

The fragrant moon-lit bower at night ; 
Scarce has it charmed the incautious view 
Than flits it from the wondering sight ! 

Oh spirit of immortal man ! 
Wouldst thou enjoy true bliss and rest ? 
Extend thy hopes beyond life's span ; 
In heaven thou mayest be ever blest ! 

Yes, Ada, as I remarked, in the beginning of 
this correspondence, religion, and the truths inti- 
mately connected with religion, are infinitely more 
important than any other study that could occupy 
the human mind, or interest the human heart. I 
have attempted to direct your attention to this 
study. I have endeavoured to show you how 



190 LETTERS TO ADA. 

ignorant some of the wisest men are of our tenets, 
ceremonies, and customs. 

But the subject is not yet exhausted: much 
still remains to be expounded and defended : while 
the storms of winter rage about us, and the snow 
whitens the fields but lately so lovely and verdant ; 
while the crackling flame usurps the hearth, which 
the fragrant flowers ©f summer so recently adorn- 
ed, I will pursue my investigation, and continue 
my correspondence. 

For the present, adieu. — Peace attend you in 
all your ways ; may happiness be your companion, 
religion shine upon your mind, and charity warm 
all the affections of your heart. Again, adieu. 



THE END, 



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